


Between Two Universes

by ravenclawalumni_2010



Series: The Story of Tony Stark and Stephanie Rogers [1]
Category: The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Action/Adventure, Character Death, F/M, Female Steve Rogers, Forced Marriage, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Mentions of Rape, Parallel Universes, Past Character Death, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Relationship(s), Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance, Survivor Guilt, Tony Stark Lives, War, no morgan stark, still in love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:20:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 7
Words: 81,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23252362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenclawalumni_2010/pseuds/ravenclawalumni_2010
Summary: While in the middle of battling against Doctor Doom in New York, both Tony and Steph were blasted by said villain into a parallel universe where Steph lost the war in 1945 against the Red Skull and Schmidt and HYDRA now rules the world with an iron fist. It is five years after the war, and Steph is now the wife of Johann Schmidt. Tony, meanwhile, runs into the Howling Commandos and the SSR division who are now considered rebels and gets dragged into their fight, but he will stop at nothing to find Steph and return them to their world. But once he does manage to find Steph and helps her escape, will they be able to help the rebels and get back to their home in time before Schmidt finds out the truth?This story has mentions of rape and the rating may go up, you have been warned!
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Howard Stark, Steve Rogers/Johann Schmidt, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: The Story of Tony Stark and Stephanie Rogers [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1791826
Comments: 10
Kudos: 38





	1. 1949

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, everyone, this is a story that came into my head and wouldn't really go away, so I'm writing it. The timeline was supposed to be sometime between the Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, but it ended up being after the events of Endgame instead. And instead of Tony doing the snap, Pepper does the snap, and in this story, Tony and Steph had a relationship, so I do apologize to the fans, Morgan Stark does not exist in this story. I love Morgan Stark as well, but I decided to not put her in this story.
> 
> I will warn my most sensitive readers, if you have experienced sexual trauma, this story is not for you! There will be a lot mentions of rape and the rating may go up because of it. If you have experienced sexual trauma and you still wish to read this, that is fine too, but please just be careful when moving forward by reading this story, it may be triggering. Skip or take a moment if you need to, but I just wanted to warn you about that.
> 
> FLAMES ARE NOT WELCOMED! I am not a huge fan of flames, I find them to be petty and immature. If you don't like my story, that's fine, you can move on to a story that you enjoy more, but don't bash me for doing something I enjoy. Constructive criticism is welcomed, but I will delete a flame if I see it.

When Tony came to, the first three things that came to his mind were: 1) where was he?, 2) how did he get here?, and 3) where was Steph? The next thing that came to his mind was how his body ached all over, and he groaned as he came to and felt the pain as soon as he did. He began to wonder how exactly is it that he was in so much pain, but then he remembered why. Prior to waking up, he remembered being in the middle of a battle in New York with the Avengers, battling against Doctor Doom, when he and Steph were blasted by Doctor Doom’s power. It looked as if the Avengers were nearly beaten, but then Steph—being her stubborn self as usual—got up and threw her shield at the device that was causing the rift between universes and destroyed it, stopping Doctor Doom altogether. It was an act that angered Doctor Doom and he blasted her, knocking her back down with his electricity.

_ “You have gotten in my way for the last time, Captain America,” Doctor Doom said as he walked towards Steph. “I have seen a world that you fear, a world where you lost everything and everyone that you loved. I think it is time that I send you to that world so you know what it’s like to lose…” _

_ “You speak as if I haven’t lost a battle before or that I haven’t lost anybody that I love,” Steph replied as she faced Doctor Doom with a determined look on her face. _

_ “Ah, touché, my dear Captain, but this is a world that you fear and wonder what would have happened if you lost,” Doctor Doom said. “Say goodbye to your friends, Captain, this may be the last time you see them…” _

All the other Avengers who were down could only watch in horror as Doctor Doom was about to make their leader disappear from this universe. Tony, however, was not about to let Doctor Doom make her disappear without a fight. Despite how weak and tired he was from the fight, he got up with all his strength and ran towards Steph in order to sacrifice himself for her. Despite everything that he and Steph have been through, he still cared deeply for her, and he was not about to let some psycho take her from this world, especially when she was needed here.

He managed to get to her in time, but just as he did, Doctor Doom had hit them both with a beam of light. Next thing he knew, he and Steph were in some vortex. At the end of the vortex, he could see a bright light, and they were getting closer and closer to the bright light.

Tony tried reaching Steph, but his propeller boots would not work, and he could not even get FRIDAY to help. She was not responding to his commands every time he tried calling on her. When he realized that he was just not going to reach Steph, he called out to her.

_ “I will find you, no matter what it takes!” he yelled just as she disappeared through the bright light. _

It was then that Tony went through the bright light, and that’s when he blacked out. Now here he was coming to, face down on something hard, with no clue where he was or if Steph was anywhere nearby.

“Steph?” he called out.

When he got no response, he concluded that she was either nowhere near him or she was knocked out cold somewhere near him.

“FRIDAY, are you there?”

“I am here, sir,” chimed in the familiar voice of FRIDAY. “I’m afraid Captain Stephanie Rogers is nowhere nearby.”

“Thanks, I figured as much,” Tony said as he got up on all fours. He groaned as he did, feeling all the aches and pain in his body as he did. “Glad to hear your voice by the way, was worried that you got damaged during the fight.”

“No, sir, I am unharmed, but the suit has taken some damage,” FRIDAY replied. “I highly recommend taking the suit in for maintenance soon.”

“Noted.”

Tony then realized that he was laying down on some rubble as he looked down on the floor and realized that broken pieces of a building were laying around him. He was finally able to roll over and was able to see that he was in a room of some sorts, or at least what was once a room. The room looked as if it had been through a warzone as there was a hole in the room to show an opening to the outside, as if a bomb had gone through and created the hole. There were a couple of holes on the floor with the structure that looked like it was about to give away. The furniture that once stood upright were now scattered all over the floor: there was a wooden chair that was laying sideways, a couch that once had two legs now only had one, and picture frames that were either hanging on the wall crooked or laying on the floor with the glass of the picture frame broken. The decorum of the room made Tony remind him of the 1940’s or 1950’s, which made him think that he was in some kind of country that could not afford modern furniture, or at least in a part where no one could afford modern furniture.

“FRIDAY, where are we?”

“Currently trying to calculate that now, sir,” FRIDAY responded.

It was about maybe 30 seconds before FRIDAY finally came back with her calculations.

“From my calculations, it appears as if we are in Russia, however, I am unable to calculate the time of day.”

“Russia?” Tony repeated. “How in the hell did we land in Russia? And are we in the middle of a warzone or something? I don’t recall Russia being in a war, pretty sure we would have heard something about it by now…”

“That I cannot say, sir,” FRIDAY replied. “I was briefly out of commission when Doctor Doom blasted you and Captain Rogers, so I am unable to calculate how we got here.”

“You can’t pull up any current news?”

“I did, nothing came up with Russia being in the middle of a war.”

_ ‘That’s weird...’ _ Tony thought.  _ ‘If there was no war going on in Russia, then why was it that it looked as if it did?’ _

Tony then could hear a sound coming from out of the opening, as if the sound of a large vehicle was coming through and he could hear the sound of people marching. He got up slowly, trying not to hurt himself more than he already was, and walked towards the opening to see what was going on outside, his mask coming off as he did. He slowly inched his way closer to the opening, being careful not to be seen by whatever was out there, and what he saw nearly made his eyes go wide. Inside the building, it looked like a warzone, but outside was no better. There were buildings all around him that were reduced to nothing but rubble with some half destroyed and half still standing. Some of the buildings were on fire, and he could see some smoke in the distance as well.

At first, Tony was thinking to himself what in the hell happened here and how long he was knocked out for a war to happen when he looked down below and saw what was causing all the commotion he heard before. Down below, he saw an army marching, all the soldiers synchronizing as they walked with a tank behind them. Seeing this reminded Tony of the Nazi Reich, but, unless he was in some kind of fucked up reanactment, there was no way this unit was part of the Nazi Reich. The soldiers were all wearing black leather with one group where their faces were completely covered, and each of the soldiers were carrying weapons that were glowing. On the tank, he could see a symbol, and it was a symbol that he would recognize anywhere, and it made his eyes go wide.

_ HYDRA… _

Tony quickly ducks down when he recognizes the symbol, not wanting to be seen and possibly be blown to pieces by the tank or vaporized. From what he could tell, the unit of HYDRA soldiers were carrying weapons that were powered by the Tesseract.  _ ‘But how is that even possible?’ _ Tony thought. He thought Steph had returned all the stones to their proper place almost two years ago now, and the Tesseract was destroyed. Was HYDRA able to recreate the Tesseract? If so, how is it that they managed to start a war with Russia in just a matter of hours? Maybe even less, who knows how long he has been out.

All of a sudden, Tony hears a noise to his left. At first, he thought it was a HYDRA soldier and was about to put his mask back on, but then he realized it was a person speaking to him in a low tone. There was no way a HYDRA soldier would just try to talk to him, they would likely just attack him right away once they found out that he was Tony Stark AKA Iron Man AKA Avenger.

Tony looks towards the door where it was wide open with the hinges broken off and could see someone crouching at the door. The person who was whispering to him was of Asian descent and Tony could tell he was a soldier and was definitely not a HYDRA soldier. The colors he wore were green and he was holding a gun in his hand that looked as if it came from the 1940’s. The soldier indicated to him to come closer, and Tony hesitated at first but decided it was safe to approach him. He approached the soldier while still staying low to the ground and realized that the soldier was not alone as he had two other soldiers with him. One of the soldiers was short and small in stature while the other one was a big burly guy who was wearing a black bowler hat.

_ ‘Who wears a bowler hat in the 21st century?’ _ Tony thought. Even his own father didn’t wear one, maybe a fedora hat but not a bowler hat.

“Do you speak Russian or English?” the Asian soldier asked him in Russian.

Tony gave the soldier a confused look, wondering why that would be the question a soldier would ask him, especially in the middle of a warzone. Plus, if the soldier recognized him, he would know that he spoke multiple languages, including Russian. The soldiers must have thought his confused look meant he didn’t speak Russian, for then one of the other soldiers—the one in the bowler hat—spoke to the Asian soldier.

“I don’t think he speaks Russian, Jimmy,” he said.

“What language do you speak?” the soldier named Jimmy asked Tony in English.

“Now, if he doesn’t speak Russian or English,” the soldier with the bowler hat (Tony decided he was gonna dub him ‘Bowler Hat guy’ until further notice) spoke up before Tony could respond to Jimmy’s question, “how in the hell is he supposed to understand us?”

“I can actually speak both English and Russian as well as multiple languages,” Tony finally spoke up before they interrupted him any further. The soldiers looked at him in surprise when he said this.

“You’re American?” Bowler Hat guy asked. When Tony nodded, he continued. “How did you end up in Russia in the middle of a warzone? And what kind of armor is that? You’re not with HYDRA, are you?”

He gave Tony a suspicious look as he said this, holding onto the gun he had in his hand a little tighter, directing it a little more towards Tony.

“Last I checked, I was not in HYDRA’s good graces, especially when they have tried to kill me multiple times,” Tony said. “As to your other question, I’m still trying to figure that out myself.”

The soldiers then all loosened their grip on their guns after that. They all looked at each other as if talking to each other with their minds before deciding that Tony was safe. Bowler hat guy nodded to Jimmy who then indicated to Tony to come out in the hallway. Still staying low to the floor, Tony made his way out of the room and then sat straight up once he was, standing up in front of the three soldiers with the stairs to his back where he could look down and see how many floors up he was in the building. He had to guess maybe the 6th or 7th floor? The soldiers stood up along with Tony.

“What’s your name?” Jimmy asked him. “And what kind of armour is that? I’ve never seen anything like that before, it looks even more advanced than HYDRA’s own technology.”

“You don’t know who I am?”

It was here that the three soldiers looked perplexed when Tony asked them that.

“Um, are we supposed to?”

“Well, most people know me, I’d figured you would recognize me by the suit I was wearing…”

The three soldiers’ confused expressions didn’t change, and this surprised Tony. Everyone knew who he was, so why is it that these three soldiers didn’t seem to recognize him.

“Iron Man?” Tony said, hoping that his superhero identity might ring a bell for them but it didn’t when their expressions stayed the same. “Tony Stark? You really don’t know who I am?”

A look of recognition finally seemed to pass over the three soldiers as they all looked at each other and back at Tony. The latter thought it had to do with because they finally recognized him as Iron Man and one of the founders for Avengers, as most people did, but that seemed to be not the case.

“Stark? Any relation to Howard Stark?” Jimmy asked. “You look like you could be his older brother…”

“If you know anything about the Stark family at all, then you would know that Howard Stark was an only child,” Tony quipped.

“Was?”

“Yes, was, he was murdered when I was 21 years old…”

The three soldiers only appeared to look more confused when Tony said this.

“Murdered? Last I heard, Howard Stark is alive and well,” Bowler hat guy said.

It was then Tony’s turn to be confused.

“Not sure if you have heard, and I’m thinking you have been living under a rock or something, but I’m very sure I would know that Howard Stark was alive.”

“And how would you know this?” Jimmy asked.

“Because I am his son,” Tony replied.

It was then that the soldiers all looked shocked as Tony said those words. He was almost half-expecting to get the praises he normally gets when people realize they are standing in the presence of Tony Stark aka Iron Man, but was genuinely surprised when he didn’t get that. He was more surprised when they responded in disbelief, it was as if they didn’t know that Iron Man or the Avengers existed.

“There is no way that you are Howard Stark’s son!” Bowler hat guy said in disbelief.

“Oh, really? And why do you think that? I’m very sure I would know if I was his son or not by now, unless I was adopted and my parents took that secret to their grave, but I know for a fact I was born in Manhattan, New York to Howard and Maria Stark; plus, I have been told many times that I am every bit of the inventor like my father, if not more.”

“What in the fucking hell are you talking about?!” Bowler hat guy cried. “There is no way you are Howard Stark’s son!”

“And why do you say that?” Tony asked, now getting annoyed with this guy.

_ ‘Have these people been living under rocks or something? Why the hell are they acting as if they don’t know that Howard Stark had a son?’ _

“Well, for one thing, you look too old to be Howard Stark’s son,” the Bowler hat guy responded. “The dude is like 33, you’re like what? In your late 40’s? There is no way you are his son, he most likely wasn’t even born by the time you were. Did you fall out of the sky and hit your head or something?”

“Did you?” Tony responded back.

Although, if you wanted to get literal, he technically did fall out of the sky and hit his head most likely when he landed in the building, but he wasn’t going to get into that. Right now, he’s got three people he now has to deal with who apparently have been living in some kind of world of their own. That’s when the first part of Bowler hat guy’s words registered in Tony’s mind.

“Wait, I’m sorry, did you say that my father is 33?”

Bowler hat guy nodded.

“There is no way that is possible!” Tony cried. “My father died when he was 74 years old, and I saw him get buried alongside my mother, and that was back in 1991.”

“1991?” Jimmy spoke up. “Son, what year do you think it is?”

“Pretty sure it is the year 2020, last I checked,” Tony responded, and the soldiers just looked at him as if he was crazy. “What? You are all looking at me as if I’m crazy.”

“Son, that’s because you are!” Bowler hat guy responded. “It is not the year 2020, it is 1949. And right now, our job is to get your crazy ass out of the city in order to stop a massacre from happening; otherwise, HYDRA is gonna wipe you from the universe.”

“1949? I think I would know if it was the year 1949!” Tony responded. “Speaking of HYDRA, how is it that they managed to get a hold of the infinity space stone again and manage to create an army in just a matter of minutes? I’m pretty sure Steph would have catched onto that and not let that happen, she and I and the others would have made sure of it.”

“Steph?” Jimmy repeated. “Steph as in Captain Stephanie Rogers? Our Stephanie Rogers?”

“Infinity space stone? What is an infinity space stone?”

“ _ This guy is nuts! We need to get out of here and leave his crazy ass before HYDRA destroys the whole city! _ ” the short soldier finally spoke up in French.

“Hey, remember how I said I can speak multiple languages? That includes French, so, no, I know for a fact I’m not crazy,” Tony replied to the French guy, making the latter’s eyes go wide.

Tony then turned his attention to the other two.

“And yes, I’m talking about Captain Stephanie Rogers, who else would I be talking about? I mean, I spent the last 9 years fighting alongside with her after she was brought back to life from being stuck in an icicle for almost 70 years after she brought down the Valkyrie.”

“ _ My god, this guy is really crazy… _ ” the French soldier said. “ _ Someone explain to him what actually happened! _ ”

“ _ Are you forgetting that I can speak your language? _ ” Tony responded to him in French. “And what do you mean what actually happened? As far as I am aware, Steph defeated the Red Skull on the Valkyrie back in 1945…”

All three soldiers looked at each other before they looked back at him with some kind of knowing look. This irritated Tony when he saw this.

“What? You all look like you have something to say to me,” he said. “If you’re gonna say it, then just say it.”

“Look,” Jimmy spoke up, “I don’t know what world, or frankly year, you think you are living in, but it’s not the year 2020, it’s the year 1949 and right now the whole world is in the middle of a battle against HYDRA. Steph did not bring the Valkyrie down in 1945, Schmidt won and he wiped out nearly half of the planet off because of it. Now, he is practically emperor of the world and kills anyone who stands up against him, which is what is happening to this town right now and we will all die if we don’t leave it soon.”

Tony’s first reaction was to laugh, which he did, as there was no way Steph was defeated in 1945, at least not the Steph he knew. When the soldiers’ serious expressions didn’t change, it was then that Tony began to realize that this reenactment that he thought he was in was not a reenactment at all. He could tell from the looks on their faces that they were all serious, that they were telling the truth and it was as if Tony, the self-proclaimed genius, just realized what was going on and that he was  _ in fact _ in the year 1949. Thinking back to the words that Doctor Doom said to Steph before he blasted her and Tony and he ended up here, it all made sense now.

_ “A world where you lost everything and everyone that you loved…” _

Tony recalled the times he and Steph had spent time alone, and they once revealed to each other their deepest fears. Steph said how she feared losing the war back in 1945 and what would happen if Schmidt won. So, this is what Doctor Doom meant by sending her to a world she feared most. The last thing he remembered was being in New York and then he woke up in a war-torn Russia where apparently Steph lost the war and HYDRA now ruled the world with an iron fist, and it was the year 1949. The decorum in the room, the number of HYDRA soldiers and the tank large enough to invade a whole city, and the clothing the soldiers were wearing and the weapons they were carrying. He and Steph had somehow ended up in a world where Schmidt had won. Now, the only two questions he had in mind were: where was Steph in all of this  _ and _ how in the hell were they going to get back?

“Whoa, hey, are you alright there, buddy?” Jimmy asked him as he grabbed a hold of Tony to prevent him from falling.

Tony hadn’t realized he was about to fall, but he guessed he was so shocked that it didn’t quite register in his brain what he was doing and he was grateful that Jimmy prevented him from falling down over the railing of the stairs to a rather most likely unpleasant death.

“Yeah, I just need to get my bearings together,” Tony replied. He then muttered to FRIDAY how he was no longer in Kansas anymore, more specifically New York.

“What’d ya say?” Bowler hat guy asked.

“Nothing, don’t worry about it,” Tony responded.

After getting over his shock that he was indeed in some kind of fucked up parallel universe where HYDRA won during the war, there was one thing that came to his mind once again: Steph. Where was she in all this chaos and if so, was she even alive? He then turned his attention to the three soldiers.

“What happened to Steph?” he asked them. “Is she...?”

He couldn’t even finish the sentence because the thought of her being defeated and being killed at the hands of HYDRA made his stomach churn. He couldn’t imagine a world without Stephanie Rogers, it was almost like ripping out a part of him that he couldn’t get back. When he saw the sorrowful looks on the soldiers faces, he couldn’t help but fear the worst.

“She’s gone, isn’t she?”

“Worse than that,” Bowler hat guy replied. “When Schmidt defeated Steph on the Valkyrie and wiped out half of the world and had them bowing to him, he took Steph as a war trophy. She has been held captive since then…”

Tony did not know which one was worse: her being killed or her being used and taken advantage of by the leader of HYDRA known as the Red Skull, it made him sick to his stomach. He recalled all the horror stories his father told him about the leader and founder of HYDRA, Johann Schmidt aka the Red Skull, and even some stories from Steph. She had been under the hands of the Red Skull for four years! Who knows what kind of sick things the Red Skull has done to her or is doing to her now? Then he had to think to himself that it is possible that the Steph he knew is out there somewhere and not at the hands of HYDRA, but is just as lost and confused as he is right now, or it was more of like he was hoping so.

“Hey, bro, you alright?” he heard Jimmy ask him. “You look like you’re about to be sick.”

“I’ll be alright,” Tony replied, although he was really lying.

“How do you know Steph?” the Bowler hat guy asked.

“That is a long story, remind me to tell you later,” Tony replied.

The Bowler hat guy gave Tony a suspicious look and he opened his mouth to say something when, all of a sudden, the sound of something firing came from behind Tony and there was a flash of blue, and the latter jumped away from the railway before he was blasted into oblivion. Instead of hitting Tony, it hit the ceiling, causing an explosion to the ceiling and making all four of them duck as debris from the ceiling fell on top of them. It was then after that that they then heard the sound of commands in German, and they all looked down below to see maybe about twenty HYDRA soldiers running up the stairs to them, and they all had to jump away again from the railing before they got hit.

“Shit, we’ve been spotted!”

“Come on, let’s go!”

All of them started to run before Bowler hat guy turned to Tony.

“You try anything funny, crazyhead, and I’ll put a bullet through your head,” he threatened. “Now, come on, I rather not die today.”

Tony would have argued, but considering that they were outnumbered by HYDRA soldiers and had to make sure they didn’t die, he decided not to argue at the moment as he ran along with them. He had to stay alive long enough to figure out where Steph was. If she was indeed with HYDRA, then he would rescue her, no matter what it took, but now, he had to focus on getting out of this battle alive.

* * *

When Stephanie felt herself coming to, she could feel her head pounding, as if she had hit her head too hard against something.  _ ‘What happened?’ _ she thought to herself as she found herself coming to. The last thing she remembered was being in New York, facing Doctor Doom head on before she then saw the familiar face of Tony Stark as he appeared to try to sacrifice himself. Steph was both angry and scared that he would do that, more fearful that she was going to lose him, but next thing she knew, she and Tony were falling through some kind of vortex. Steph remembered trying to reach Tony and trying to grab his hand when he reached out to her, but she was unable to as a force was keeping them from even getting close to each other. It was when she was just about to go through the bright light of the vortex that she heard the sound of Tony’s voice.

_ “I will find you, no matter what it takes!” _

And then she blacked out as soon as she went through the bright light. Now, she could feel herself coming to, and the first thing she thought of was where Tony was. The next thing she thought of was where was she and if she was anywhere close to Tony and Tasha. If so, then she would like to do two things: 1) yell at Tony for doing such a reckless thing and 2) hold both Tony and Tasha close to her because she was afraid of never seeing them again. She then could hear a voice in the background.

“Kaiserin Schmidt, are you alright?”

_ Kaiserin Schmidt?  _ Who in the hell was Kaiserin Schmidt? The voice in the background had a thick accent and Steph could tell that the person who was speaking was most likely German as she recognized the language and the phrase the person used. Steph groaned as she lifted a hand to her head, feeling her head pound and wondering how hard did she hit her head. She then felt someone come to her side and that person dabbing a wet, warm washcloth on her forehead.

“Tony, is that you?”

It was then that Steph’s vision became less blurry and once it did, she could see a figure, but that it wasn’t Tony, much to her disappointment, and it wasn’t even a man. The person sitting right next to her was a woman who looked really young (maybe about seventeen or eighteen years old), and she had a round face with a cute button nose and bright green eyes with dark brown curly hair.

“Tony? No, it’s me, Amalia,” the young woman said to Steph. “You fainted and hit your head, Kaiserin…”

It was then Steph looked around her surroundings and realized that she was not in the hospital for the Avengers facility like she originally thought, but was in some kind of room. The room was large and very luxurious, more luxurious than what Steph could probably afford. Maybe Tony could, but definitely not her. She was laying on a four poster bed with sheets that were made of satin and the bed was very comfortable, more comfortable than the bed she had at the Avengers facility. On the four poster bed, she could see drapes over it that were now pulled up. To her left, she could see a vanity station that had all sorts of jewelry, a couple of hair brushes and a chair in front of it. There was a red and black folding screen a couple feet away from the vanity station, in front of a door, and a fireplace in the corner. There were some paintings on the wall, some of them that looked like her work, and there were windows to her right; however, there were bars on the windows, which made Steph think that she was a prisoner of some sorts in this place that she landed in.

She then looked at the woman more closely and realized that she was wearing a maid’s outfit, but it wasn’t a very revealing outfit like she had seen most women wear them during Halloween, this was a very traditional 1940’s maid’s outfit. She was wearing black shoes with black stockings and the maid’s dress with the neckline that only revealed her neck and nothing more, and the white apron. It made Steph think what kind of person let’s a woman dress like this in the year 2020. Nowadays, even with people having maids, they don’t dress them like this anymore.

“Who are you and where am I?” Steph asked the woman.

The woman appeared shocked and confused when Steph asked that question.

“I’m Amalia, your personal maid. You don’t remember me?”

“I think I would have remembered if I had a personal maid or not. Where’s Tony?” Steph asked.

The woman named Amalia only appeared confused when Steph asked that question. “Whose Tony?”

“You know, Tony, as in Tony Stark, the guy I’ve been working with for almost 10 years now,” Steph said. When she saw that she didn’t get the reaction she normally got when she mentioned Tony Stark (the wide-eye recognition look), she continued, “Tony Stark, as in Iron Man? You don’t know who Tony Stark aka Iron Man is?”

She asked that last question when she didn’t see the look of recognition on the girl’s face.

“Sorry, ma’am, I do not know this Tony Stark or Iron Man that you speak of,” she said. “I know of a Howard Stark, but not a Tony Stark.”

Steph was now confused and began to feel a little alarmed. What kind of place did she end up in where people did not know who Tony Stark was? And the fact that Steph could see bars on the windows made her think that she was in a prison of some sorts, despite the nice looking room. Something was off, and she was going to figure out what it was.

“Where am I?” she asked Amalia as she got up. “What kind of place is this for there to be bars on the windows?”

“Kaiserin Schmidt, please take it easy!” Amalia cried as she tried coaxing Steph to sit back down. “You fainted and hit your head pretty badly…”

Steph then stopped when she realized what Amalia just called her.

“What did you just say?”

“You fainted, ma’am, you need to take it easy,” Amalia repeated.

“No, not that,” Steph replied. “My name, you just called me something, what was it?”

Amalia appeared confused and looked almost a little intimidated by Steph’s sudden apparent anger. Steph did not care, at the moment, for she wanted to know why is it that someone was calling her something that was not her surname.

“Kaiserin Schmidt, your name is Kaiserin Stephanie Schmidt,” Amalia finally answered.

Steph then gave Amalia a serious look as she felt something was wrong in the pit of her stomach. She was getting a feeling that she had not felt since she was brought back to life from being in the ice for nearly 70 years, and now she was getting that feeling again; instead of waking up in a simulator, Steph woke up in a rather luxurious room and found a person who was wearing a 1940’s maid’s outfit. It felt as if instead of waking up 70 years later, she woke up 70+ years in the past.

“No, my name is Stephanie Grace Rogers, it is not Schmidt!” she said. “I am also known as Captain America or Captain Rogers to others, and I am also an Avenger, last time I checked. So do you mind telling me why is it that you are calling me Empress Schmidt?”

“It was the name that you were given, Kaiserin Schmidt, when you married Kaiser Johann Schmidt…”

Steph felt her heart drop at hearing this and she had a hard time finding her voice.

“W-w-what? I’m married to…”

She couldn’t even finish her sentence because the thought of being married to that vile and cruel man known as Johann Schmidt made her want to vomit. She stood there, staring at Amalia, feeling as if this was all a sick dream, and she tried pinching herself to wake herself up from this horrible nightmare, but she didn’t wake up back in New York where she should have been. She was still standing in front of the maid known as Amalia and in the very luxurious bedroom, so this was all very real. Next thing Steph thought was that she had to get out of here and find Tony, so she did the next best thing that came to her mind: run.

“Kaiserin Schmidt, you really need to be careful, you just fainted and hit your head…”

The maid called out to her alarm as she saw her mistress make a run for it, but Steph ignored her. The only thing she could think about was making a run for it and getting the hell out of here. She ran towards the double doors and slammed them open.

“Kaiserin Schmidt, please…  _ Kaiserin Schmidt! _ ”

The maid yelled out to Steph when she saw Steph continued to make a run for it. When Steph went out to the room, she stepped out into a long hallway and then she turned to her right where she saw a set of stairs she could go down and she immediately started running towards it. Sometime after she started running, Steph started to feel exhausted not even a minute after she started to run, and it made her wonder why she was getting so exhausted so quickly. Normally, the serum helped her recover rather quickly, so really, she should be fine and be able to run fast without getting too exhausted for running only 20 seconds; and yet, she was. Maybe she hit her head harder than she thought? She kept on pushing through, though, and soon saw a double set of doors that no doubt lead to the entrance of this house. She ran towards it and kicked the doors open, nearly knocking the doors off its hinges, and stepped outside. When she did, though, what she saw shocked her to her very core.

From inside the room Steph was in, it almost felt like she was a prisoner, but outside was a completely different story. Outside, she could see she was standing in a courtyard and there was a statue in the middle of said courtyard. Around the statue was a circular garden and Steph could see the statue was a likeness of Johann Schmidt of who he was before the serum once she went around and saw it up front with the statue standing tall and regal and Schmidt looking out in the distance, and there was a saying in German that said “Johann Schmidt, Emperor and the First Superior Human”. She looked back towards the building that she was in and saw that it was not a house, but rather a mansion, the biggest she has ever seen it, it was bigger than Tony’s own mansion. It looked fit enough for a king and queen, although it probably was fit for a king and queen. She looked out away from the mansion to the gate and she saw that the mansion was gated. The gates stood tall and black, tall enough that it would probably take some time before someone would even be able to climb over it, and the entrance had double doors that were also black and in the middle was HYDRA’s symbol that was painted red, no doubt to represent Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull. Around her, she could see guards who were holding weapons powered by the Tesseract ( _ ‘No, the space infinity stone,’ _ Steph thought) and they were all looking at her through their black masks, almost as if they were watching her and daring her to try to make a run for it. There were pillars around the gates and on top of those pillars were weapons that moved around almost as if to keep people from trying to intrude or from escaping. It was most likely both.

Steph looked down at herself and realized that she was definitely not wearing her suit anymore, and she definitely was not wearing any modern clothes for 2020, but rather 1940’s clothes. She was wearing a burgundy skirt that reaches just above her knees and black heels that were short, she had on a black shirt that had a U-neckline and showed a little bit of her cleavage, but other than that, she was wearing something completely modest with a black stylish scarf on her neck. Steph brought shaky hands to her hair and grabbed a fistful of them to see that her hair that was medium length and straight in the 21st century was now long and her curls were back.

She looked back around her and the words of Doctor Doom ran through her head.

_ “A world where you lost everything and everyone that you loved...” _

This was that world that he was speaking of: a world where she had lost the war back in 1945 and was now a prisoner of Johann Schmidt. She suddenly felt herself becoming weak and her knees started giving away, but, luckily, Amalia the maid came up to her in time and caught her before she fell again.

“Kaiserin Schmidt, are you alright?”

When Steph did not respond, Amalia was quick to act.

“I am going to call Kaiser Schmidt! Let’s get you back to bed, Kaiserin Schmidt, and then I’ll call him.”

“No, don’t…” Steph interrupted her. “Don’t call him, he is the last person I want to see right now. Right now, I want you to explain to me on what the  _ fuck  _ is going on and where the hell am I?”


	2. HYDRA Won

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony assists the three rebel soldiers in getting out of the city, and Steph learns what has happened in the past five years in the universe she and Tony are stuck in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the second chapter, hope you enjoy it. Will warn you, this chapter is a bit long, so I apologize, the other chapters shouldn't be as long as this one.
> 
> 'Italics'-usually refers to when someone is thinking
> 
> "Italics"-will usually refer when someone is speaking in a different language unless I know the phrase then will say the phrase and will gladly translate it at the notes for the end of each chapter.
> 
> You have any questions or wish to leave a review, feel free. Just again, no flames please, thank you.

Tony was running behind the three soldiers up the stairs, dodging the blasts from the HYDRA guns as he did. He could feel himself start to get fatigued, having to continuously run up the stairs, but it was either that or possibly be vaporized from the planet, and, personally, Tony rather not be the latter. So he continued running up the stairs with the soldiers until they stopped at maybe about the 13th or 15th floor with all four of them gasping for breath, away from the stairs.

“We’re not gonna be able to out-run these guys, Dugan,” Jimmy said to the Bowler hat guy. “We got to do something.”

“ _ What are we going to do? _ ” Dernier cried. “There are only four of us, including crazy one here, but he doesn’t even have a gun. He probably doesn’t even know how to shoot.”

‘ _ I can do more damage than you think, Frenchie _ ,’ Tony thought as he looked down at his Iron Man suit he was still wearing. He kept that comment to himself, though, they already think he was crazy, don’t need to give them more reason to not trust him if he wanted to get out of here alive and find Steph. That’s when he got an idea as he realized he was still in his Iron Man suit, it was a risky one because the suit had taken some damage and it would most likely cause more HYDRA soldiers to come, but it was better than nothing and having to keep on running from soldiers with weapons powered by an infinity stone while they only had manufactured guns.

“Dernier is right,” Dugan said. “We don’t stand much of a chance against twenty HYDRA soldiers…”

“I have an idea,” Tony spoke up and the soldiers looked to him when he did, “but you have to trust me.”

“Nah, no way! Whatever idea you have, crazyhead, I don’t trust it!” Dugan said.

“I don’t think you got much of a choice!” Tony snapped at him. “It’s either that or being wiped from the face of the Earth!”

The sound of the HYDRA soldiers shouting in German and running up the stairs could be heard down below as Dugan appeared to be trying to make a decision. Finally, he relented.

“Okay, fine, what’s your plan?”

“You and the other two go hide. Wait for my signal and then you can come out guns blazing and fire at will.”

“What’s the signal?” Jimmy asked.

“You’ll know when you see it.”

“I swear, crazyhead, if you try anything funny—”

“Now is not the time to have trust issues with me! You can either trust me or you can die, it’s your choice! Keep in mind, though, we don’t got a lot of time for you to make a decision.”

The sound of HYDRA soldiers were getting closer. Dugan then finally relented, after sometime.

“Alright, fine, but I swear, if you are a HYDRA spy and you ambush us, I am going to kill you!”

_ I’d like to see you try _ , Tony was going to say, but decided to keep the comment to himself. Now was not the time for him to start fights with someone who pretty much was keeping him from certain death.

“Come on, guys, let’s go,” Dugan said to Jimmy and Dernier. “Hopefully this nutjob won’t ambush us…”

He and Jimmy and Dernier then all ran to go hide. Tony waited for them to disappear, keeping note of where they disappeared, before making a run for it and finding a hiding spot for himself. He found a room that was closest to him and hid in there.

“Time to rumble, FRIDAY,” he whispered as his mask came back on.

It was just at that moment that the HYDRA soldiers reached the floor that Tony and the three resistance soldiers were on. The leader made commands, telling them to search everywhere in German. The soldiers went down the halls beginning to search for Tony and the resistance soldiers. It was quiet, except for the sound of the HYDRA soldiers walking around. The leader walked down the hall slowly, a small gun in his hand, when, all of a sudden, the silence was broken.

Tony had punched through the wall and grabbed the leader by the collar of his uniform, pulling him to the side and hitting him against the wall, effectively knocking him out. The commotion caused most of the soldiers to turn their attention at the sound of that only to see a hole that was not there before and their leader was knocked out by whatever caused the hole.

“ _ Go check that room over there! _ ” someone commanded in German.

Four soldiers then ran over to the room with two soldiers going in. There was the sound of some shouting and cries of pain before one of the soldiers was thrown out of the room, screaming in terror as he fell against the railing and then toppled over to his death. Tony then stepped out of the room and turned to the other HYDRA soldiers who looked at him in both shock and amazement. It was almost humorous to see that look, considering the look Tony was used to seeing whenever he was in his Iron Man suit was awe and admiration, unless you are the bad guy. It felt like a time before people knew he was Iron Man, which was technically true, in this case.

“Hello, boys, anybody got the time?” Tony greeted them in English. “I am afraid I lost track of it.”

“ _ Kill it! _ ”

Tony ducked as soon as the HYDRA started shooting, and he stood right back up, aiming his left hand at the HYDRA soldier standing directly to his left side and then put his right hand up immediately to the soldier in front of him diagonally right after that. He shot both of them with his repulsors on each hand, and both soldiers were thrown back in the air. The repulsors gave enough force to throw one all the way across the hall and the other through the wall and into a room. The one who went through the wall and into the room went into the room where, coincidentally, was where Dugan and Dernier were hiding.

When the HYDRA soldier went through the wall, Dugan and Dernier nearly jumped in surprise. At first, they thought that Steph was here because no one else they knew was that strong enough to throw a man through the wall, unless the crazy man who was calling himself Tony Stark was a super human like Steph was. If that was the case, then they had more of a reason to be worried about him.

“What in the hell…?”

“ _ My god, I think crazyhead is a super soldier. _ ”

Dernier breathed out that last part.

Dugan walked up and peeked through the hole in the wall and then looked back to Dernier with a look of shock and awe on his face.

“That ain’t no super soldier.”

Dernier gave Dugan a confused look on his face before walking up to see what Dugan was talking about. He looked in time just to see Tony now in his full Iron Man suit throw a punch at one of the soldiers who then flew down across the hall, making Dernier’s eyes go wide at seeing that. He had never seen any technology like that before, not since first coming into contact with HYDRA’s technology.

There was the sound of a groan behind them and they looked to see the HYDRA soldier who had come through the wall coming to. He groaned as he sat up and then his eyes went wide when he spotted the resistance soldiers staring at him. He began to yell for his fellow comrades when he was silenced by Dugan who went over and hit him in the face with the end of his gun, knocking him out. He turned around and ducked and rolled over towards the door to the room when a HYDRA soldier spotted him and fired at him through the hole in the wall, nearly missed being vaporized. Dernier was watching from his hiding spot the fight unfold with amazement for a moment until Tony finally spotted him.

“ _ Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to help me take care of these guys? _ ” he asked him in his native language.

That seemed to shake Dernier from his stupor and he nodded before finally taking out a gun and firing at the HYDRA soldiers at will, shooting at any HYDRA soldier that came into his view. He would take cover whenever one would shoot at him before firing back at them again. Pretty soon, a soldier burst into the room and turned to Dernier, ready to shoot him into oblivion when Dugan hit him across the face with his gun and knocked him to the ground. Before the soldier could get up, Dugan shot him and then went back to take cover and took a radio out of his pocket once he did.

“Morita, where in the hell are you?” he shouted into the radio. “You are not going to believe what we are seeing right now!”

It was then that Jimmy’s voice rang through the radio, and his voice sounded as if he was in distress.

“Dugan, I need help! I’m taking fire and I got civilians in here with me: a little boy and a little girl!”

“Where are you?” Dugan shouted.

“On the southeast side of the building, second door to the right!”

“Hold on, Morita, I’m coming!”

Dugan then turned to Dernier and shouted at him to cover him. Dernier nodded and then started firing once more at will again. Dugan then ran out of the room, taking an axe from his belt and a small gun in his holster.

“ _ Duck! _ ” is the first thing he hears when he runs out of the room.

He looked to his left and saw Tony aiming his repulsors at him and then looked to his right and saw a soldier aiming a gun at him. He ducked just in time when Tony shot his repulsors at the soldier, making him fly across the hallway. Dugan got up and looked up at him in shock, becoming speechless at seeing Tony in a suit with technology that was far more advanced than even HYDRA’s.

“You’re welcome,” Tony said, taking Dugan’s silence as gratitude.

More shouts were heard from behind Dugan and they both turned to see more HYDRA soldiers coming their way.

“Shit, they brought back up…” Dugan said.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Tony responded.

Dugan held up his gun and shot at any soldiers within shooting range while the ones who got too close he would swing at them with his axe. Tony, meanwhile, used his superspeed with the suit to get close to the soldiers and used hand-to-hand combat against them, with his kicks and punches strong enough to either knock the soldiers out or kill them. It was sometime during the fight that Dugan’s radio went off again, and Jimmy’s voice ran through the radio.

“Dugan, I’m pinned down! I need back-up  _ NOW! _ ”

“Hold on, buddy, we’re coming for ya!”

Dugan then yelled to Tony.

“Hey, crazyhead, Jimmy is in trouble and I need to get to him! Can you handle all these guys by yourself?”

“Pretty sure that me and Frenchie here can handle 5 or more HYDRA soldiers,” Tony responded.

“ _ Hey! I resent being called Frenchie! _ ” Dernier cried.

“You handle these guys then, I am going to help Jimmy!”

Dugan personally really did not want to leave Tony with Dernier as he still didn’t trust him, but he was left with no other choice. He had to get to Jimmy and help him and the two innocent civilians. He threw punches and swung his axe at any soldier who got in his way, and he managed to reach the area where Jimmy said he was, turning the corner, but as soon as he did, he had to jump back to take cover to prevent himself from being vaporized. Bursts of blue lights whizzed past him, hitting the wall across and causing an explosion, and Dugan tried to turn around the corner and fire back but seven against one was almost impossible, and there was a chance of more HYDRA soldiers coming. Only bringing his hand around the corner, he started firing blindly and hoped that he at least shot one. By the sound of a cry of pain he heard, he had to assume that he shot at least one of them, but whether he shot them dead or injured them, he was unable to tell. He then turned around the corner real quick and threw his axe down the hallway, hitting a soldier right in the chest who was clutching on an injured leg and instantly killing him, before going back to take cover from the fire. He continued trying to fire at them from around the corner until a soldier managed to shoot the gun out of his hand, making Dugan curse out in pain at the impact.

“Shit! Dernier, I need a grenade!”

“ _ I am all out of grenades, I used my last one a while back! _ ”

“And you didn’t think to bring extra with you?!”

“ _ This wasn’t exactly bomb a HYDRA base type of mission! _ ”

“What’s going on?” Tony shouted to Dugan after he punched the last soldier out.

“Jimmy’s in trouble, I can’t get to him and I lost my weapon! Dernier, get your ass over here and help me!”

Dernier ran over to Dugan to assist him, throwing a gun to Dugan who began firing back at the soldiers again. It gave Dernier enough cover to roll over and grab the gun that Dugan lost to the other side of the corner before getting up and throwing Dugan’s gun back to him, switching weapons with each other. Both he and Dugan began firing back at the soldiers while Tony went up, ready to assist them when, all of a sudden, there was the sound of a  _ BOOM! _ And the building started to shake, making everyone who was in the building to lose their balance.

“What in the hell was that?” Dugan cried.

“Sir,” came the voice of FRIDAY, “it appears as if HYDRA is using a tank against us.”

“Did your suit just talk?”

Before Tony could even answer Dugan’s question, there was the explosion sound from the tank and the building shook again. This time, the shaking was a lot more violent making everyone lose their balance once more. The HYDRA soldiers, however, refused to leave and kept getting back up to shoot at them and Jimmy and the children. Tony had to admire their dedication, even if he hated the cause they fought for. There was the sound of two high-pitched scream after the tank shot at the building again, and Tony realized with alarm that the citizens were just children and he got the urge to get to them even more.

“Fucking shit, at this rate, we’ll never get to Jimmy in time!” Dugan shouted. “By the time we do, this whole place will be caving in down on us!”

“FRIDAY, how are Jimmy and the kids?” Tony asked.

“Relatively unharmed, but they are in significant distress right now.”

‘ _ Who wouldn’t be in the middle of a war zone _ ,’ Tony thought. He then looked around with all the dead HYDRA soldiers behind him, and that’s when he realized that they most likely have a grenade of some kind on them somewhere and he got an idea. There is no way that HYDRA would go without any type of grenade as if they were going to battle, he would consider them dumb if their leader had them go without them. He then turned back to Dugan and Dernier and ran up to Dugan, getting his attention.

“I need you to tell Jimmy and the kids to take cover, I am going to get us out of here faster.”

Dugan appeared conflicted for a moment before finally agreeing to it.

“Fine, just don’t get Jimmy or the civilians killed!” he said before he takes out his radio to give Jimmy a command. “Morita, I need you and the civilians to take cover, nutjob here’s got a plan.”

“Copy that.”

When Dugan nodded at him and started shooting at the soldiers again, Tony then started to search the dead HYDRA soldiers for anything that could possibly be a bomb or a grenade or anything, really. He searched around every soldier as quick as possible before he finally searched one soldier and took out a black round ball with a red button in the middle.

“FRIDAY, is this a grenade?”

“Not likely, sir, the components inside the device suggests that it is actually a bomb used to temporarily make the opponent deaf within 10 feet.”

“I am assuming that this red button in the middle is the one to activate it?”

“You are correct, sir.”

Tony got up, but not before losing his balance as the tank shot at the building again, making the structure shake. The sound of the children screaming could be heard once more when the tank fired at the building again.

“Goddamnit, hurry it up, will you?” Dugan shouted to Tony. “We don’t got that much time before the building caves in on us!”

Tony got back up and ran to Dugan and Dernier.

“Will this suffice for a distraction?” Tony asked Dugan as he held up the device to his eye-level.

Dugan’s eyes went wide when he recognized the device in Tony’s hand and shook his head yes, telling Tony to wait for his signal. He then turned to Dernier, telling him to cover his ears before taking out his radio to tell Jimmy the same thing. Once he got a response from the latter, he gave Tony the go ahead and covered his ears. Tony then pressed the activate button before quickly throwing the device down the hall towards the small unit of HYDRA soldiers and then taking cover, barely being missed by the blast of their guns. It took a couple of seconds for the soldiers to realize what Tony threw at them and they all shouted as they moved to get away from the impact, but by that time, it was too late. The device went off and there was a loud bang that made the soldiers cry out in pain and drop to their knees as they held onto their ears.

Dugan, Dernier, and Tony then ran around the corner of the hallway with Tony going first and then Dugan and Dernier following after him. Shots could be heard as Dugan and Dernier started shooting at any soldiers that got up and attempted to shoot them while Tony went down the hall and knocked out any soldiers in the way. He knocked out what seemed to be the last soldier and it was quiet for a moment as Tony turned around to look at Dugan and Dernier who both were looking at him in complete shock and amazement with Dugan looking at him with more suspicion than amazement. They were so shocked that they didn’t even notice a soldier get up from behind Tony and grab a gun to raise it at him, and Dernier was the one to notice him as soon as the soldier aimed it at Tony.

“ _ Watch out! _ ”

Tony turned around in time to see the soldier aiming his gun at him, and he was close to being vaporized. However, the sound of a shotgun came through and the soldier was shot in the head and dropped dead to the ground. Tony turned to the inside of the room and saw Jimmy with his gun held high, and he had a shocked expression on his face as he saw Tony in his full Iron Man suit.

“Thanks, pal,” Tony just said to him.

Jimmy only nodded in response as he couldn’t quite find his voice just yet. It was then that two young children came out of hiding, a little boy who looked maybe about 6 or 7 and a little girl who looked about 4 or 5 years old. Both children had pure terrified look on their faces, and they were dirty and had tear-streaked stains on their faces. Seeing this made Tony almost fill up with rage as he thought of all the horror that HYDRA had no doubt put them through, giving Tony another reason why he hated HYDRA. It was then that the silence and Tony’s thoughts were broken when Jimmy spoke up.

“Who or  _ what _ in the fucking hell are you?”

“Language, there are children present.”

A look of familiarity crossed Jimmy’s face when Tony said the word ‘language’, it was the way he said it that reminded him of someone. He was about to say something to him about it when the building shook again all of a sudden. This time, though, they were all surprised when an explosion came through the wall, creating a hole in the wall. The impact caused everyone to lose their balance and take cover with Jimmy falling face-down on the ground and Tony fell backward and slid on the ground against the wall as he did. The explosion from the tank had caused the floor to give away and a loud high-pitched terror scream could be heard as all of this happened. It was a moment before all of them recovered from the impact, and coughing could be heard as all of them got up, the fumes from the blast filling up their lungs.

“Jimmy! Jimmy!” Dugan shouted as he got up and ran as quick as possible to the room where Jimmy and the two children were.

“I’m alright!”

“Come on, let’s get outta here!”

Dugan came into the room and helped Jimmy up while Tony indicated the little boy to follow them. The little boy was on his way to following the resistance soldiers and Tony out when he stopped and looked back at the now destroyed room.

“ _ Anya? Anya?! Anya, where are you?! _ ” he shouted as he frantically looked around the room.

“Wait, where is the little girl?” Jimmy asked.

It was then that the soldiers and Tony realized that the little girl was missing and that Anya was the little girl the boy was looking for. He looked to the soldiers with an almost wild panic look in his eyes.

“ _ Please help me find my sister! _ ”

It was then that a small-pitched cough could be heard from below where the hole in the floor was, and a voice called out to them.

“ _ Dmitry! I’m down here! Help me, I can’t move! _ ”

The little boy named Dmitry, the three soldiers, and Tony ran to the edge of the broken floor and they looked down below where they saw Anya who was alive but hurt. She was bleeding on her head and she was pinned down by the structure that fell from the explosion. A sound could be heard from outside and they all looked to see the tank move the gun lower as whoever was operating from inside spotted Anya and was aiming to kill her. When they saw this, they all felt their hearts drop and Anya began to scream in fear, calling out to her brother.

“ _ Anya! _ ”

“Shit, that thing is going to kill her,” Tony said before looking back to Anya. “FRIDAY, how many rockets do we have left?”

“You have enough to do what I think you are going to do, sir,” FRIDAY responded.

“Good!” Tony said as he jumped onto the next floor down to help Anya.

“What are you doing?!” Dugan shouted at him. “That thing is gonna kill her by the time you get her out of there!”

“I am not leaving a little girl behind to fend for herself!” Tony yelled back. “You can either help me or leave, it’s your choice.”

Dugan and Dernier looked conflicted while Jimmy and Dmitry looked at him in surprise and admiration. Jimmy then got a determined look on his face as he put his gun over his shoulder and then jumped down right next to Tony who was surprised that he decided to help but he’ll take it. Some help was better than no help at all. Dugan, however, was not happy about Jimmy’s decision.

“Morita, what are you doing?!”

“Go take the kid to safety, I’ve got this.”

“Jimmy!”

“Just do it!”

Although he was rather reluctant to leave Jimmy behind to most likely die, Dugan did as he was told, grabbing Dmitry by the arm and dragging him out of there. The latter didn’t leave without a fight as he screamed for his sister as he was dragged away. Anya screamed out as she watched her brother be dragged away, screaming out his name and begging him not to leave, and she appeared to lose all hope when she saw her brother leave. It nearly broke Tony’s heart to see that and he wished he could comfort the poor girl, but he had to focus on getting them out alive.

“What do you need from me?” Jimmy asked him.

Tony looked to Anya and the structure that had her pinned, getting a reading from it and seeing that Anya had a broken ankle. He then looked outside where the gun of the tank was lowering even more, seeing how close it was getting to aim at them before turning back.

“Alright, here’s what we are going to do: I lift and you pull her out,” Tony said. “It will probably get us out faster and we’ll most likely miss being shot by the tank if we do it quickly.”

“You sure you can lift that pretty easily?” Jimmy asked skeptically, referring to the structure.

“Pretty sure I can,” Tony replied. “Now, come on, let’s go!”

Jimmy went around, grabbing a hold of Anya’s arms, ready to pull her out as soon as he was able to. Tony then grabbed the structure from underneath and he lifted the structure with relative ease, much to the surprise of Jimmy, and the latter pulled Anya out. Anya groaned out in pain as he did, feeling the pain in her ankle from her fall. Once she was safely out, Tony let go of the structure, making it drop really hard to the ground, and he and Jimmy were ready to run out of there when Anya looked out and screamed. Both Tony and Jimmy looked and saw that the gun was now aimed right at them and was getting ready to fire as the gun started to pull back.

“Take cover!” Tony shouted to Jimmy.

He then slid in front of both him and Anya as Jimmy held onto Anya, ready to take cover. Facing the tank, Tony raised his arm towards the gun of the tank, a rocket coming out his arm and then he launched the rocket just as the tank fired at them. The rocket firing into the tank at the same time that it did caused such an impact that it created a huge explosion. The whole tank blew up as soon as the rocket hit the tank’s own fire power, pieces of it flying everywhere, and a large fire erupted from the explosion. The fire was so large that it was overwhelming, and Tony, Jimmy, and Anya had to take cover from it.

It was a minute or so before the fire finally died down, and that’s when Tony and Jimmy got up with the latter holding Anya in his arms once it did with both Jimmy and Anya looking outside in shock at the damage Tony did from his suit of armour. With Anya, it was a mixture of shock, horror, and admiration at the damage as the man (or robot) in the suit did and grateful that he saved them. She then realized that he was definitely a man when the mask came off and she saw Tony’s face. Tony approached the edge where he surveyed the damage that he had done, and he could see all that was left of the tank was the body and the tracks. Everything else was scattered everywhere. HYDRA soldiers who were too close to the tank were either dead or cradling injuries they received from the impact of the explosion while those who were still alive were stunned from it and struggling to get up.

Tony then turned to Jimmy and the way he stood tall and regal reminded Jimmy of Captain America when he first met her. He recalled being kept prisoner as basically a slave for HYDRA during WWII and beginning to doubt as if he would see the light of day or his friends and family again. It wasn’t until he saw Captain America on the railway above their cells and had rescued him and the others that he felt a glimpse of hope. Now having fought this war for years with no end in sight, he felt something he hadn’t felt in a while: hope.

“ _ Jimmy, what in the hell happened? Are you okay? _ ” came the voice of Dugan on his radio, causing him to come out of his stupor.

“You better get that,” Tony said to him, and he took Anya from him so that he could answer Dugan.

“I’m here, Dum Dum, everyone here is alright. A little frazzled, but alright.”

“ _ What happened out there? _ ”

“I’ll fill you in later once we’re out of here.”

“ _ Copy that, now get your ass outta there and let’s get moving! _ ”

“You know, I should have a long discussion with that man about using that kind of language around children,” Tony said.

Jimmy was once again reminded of Stephanie Rogers as he recalled all the times she had chided him and the others for foul language when he said that.

“Come on, we should catch up with the others,” he said. “No doubt, this place will be swarming with HYDRA soldiers if we don’t get outta here soon. I would keep the suit on til we get out of the city.”

Tony only nodded in agreement and followed Jimmy out of the building, carrying Anya in his arms as he did, to catch up with the others.

* * *

Amalia had sat Steph down inside the parlor room and given her tea to “help calm her nerves”, but Steph didn’t even touch it as she just sat down and listened to everything of what has happened in the past four to now almost five years and she felt her emotions reeling. In this apparently messed up universe, Steph had lost the war in 1945 to the Red Skull and he basically wiped out almost half of the world. Now it was the year 1949, late December 1949 to be exact, about a month away from the five year anniversary of HYDRA winning the war. HYDRA—or Schmidt to be exact—now ruled the entire world with an iron fist. Schmidt was both revered and feared by everyone, and he was practically king of the world. It explained why Amalia referred to him as Kaiser Schmidt. From what Amalia told her, there was a resistance going on, but it was very weak, and all the people who had worked with the SSR division had either been captured and killed or gone into hiding. Anyone who stood up against Schmidt or HYDRA were eliminated, be it man, child, or woman.

After the war, Schmidt took her as his wife, but instead of letting the whole world know that, he kept her real identity a secret, telling the whole world that he killed Captain America. Stephanie Grace Rogers no longer existed, she was now Stephanie Giselle Müller nee Schmidt, an American of German descent and not Irish descent. The wife of Johann Schmidt and empress of the world; hence, why Amalia called her Kaiserin Schmidt. When Steph asked why Schmidt decided to give her a new identity, the latter said it was to not give people any hope and Steph supposed she could see the logic in that, if she was a villain. According to the world, Captain America was dead and she was considered a symbol of hope. You kill that, then all hope dies with it.

After Amalia was done explaining everything, Steph had a question that came to her head. Thinking about it just made her want to vomit, but it was a question that was burning her and she had to know.

“Amalia, has Schmidt…” she began, “has he ever, ya know…touched me?”

The uncomfortable look on Amalia’s face told her everything she needed to know, and the image of Schmidt putting his hands all over her and touching her in intimate places came to her mind. She felt the bile come to her mouth before she could even stop it.

“Oh, god, I think I’m gonna be sick!”

Amalia, who seemed rather intuitive to her mistress’ needs, grabbed something in the middle of the coffee table—a ceramic bowl—for her to use. As soon as Steph received the bowl, the bile immediately came out and she hurled into it, and she felt shaky for the second time that day. She didn’t know how much more shock she could process at this rate. Once she was done, Amalia grabbed the bowl back from her and then said she was going to go grab a glass of water, taking the bowl with her to clean it, no doubt.

Steph leaned back against the couch she was sitting on, putting her hand over her heart as she tried calming down her erratic heartbeat. She takes a few deep breaths to try to calm herself down and closed her eyes, hoping that when she opens them again that she’ll wake up from this terrible nightmare and be in the Avengers facility, but she still found herself sitting in the parlor room of the mansion-like house she lived in. It reminded her that this was not a nightmare and that this was all very real. She felt herself start to feel a little better after a couple minutes after, like the serum is supposed to, but the taste of bile was still in her mouth.

It was after she began to feel better that she looked at the painting that was above the fireplace. She noticed it earlier when Amalia first brought her in there, but wasn’t able to get a good look at it until now. The painting was rather large, and she could see it was a painting of both her and Johann Schmidt. In the painting, Schmidt was standing right beside where Steph was sitting in the painting, looking tall and regal in his HYDRA uniform and wearing his mask with a hand on her shoulder. Whoever the painter was did not do her justice at all, they made her eyes and lips all wrong. It was as if they were trying to make her look happier than she most likely was (and that was to say not at all), and the hand Schmidt had on her shoulder looked rather possessive. To a follower of HYDRA, they would most likely see Schmidt as a dotting and loving husband by doing that, but to Steph, it looked as if he was trying to keep her in place.

If there was anything she remembered about Schmidt since she last saw him nearly ten years ago, it was that he had always looked down at her on the basis of her gender, being one of those typical sexist men who believed women were meant to stay home and look after the children. So, it was more than likely he saw her more as his property than his equal or a human being. The grip he had on her shoulder in the painting looked almost too tight, and Steph winced at the thought of no doubt of how painful it was for the Steph in this world having to endure going through that as if she loved the man who forced her to marry him. That last thought made her wonder how was it that Schmidt managed to force her into marrying him. She knew she wouldn’t go through it without a fight, and she was just as strong as him, so how and why is it that the Steph in this world didn’t come up with a plan to escape after almost five years? She didn’t have time to dwell on it, for Amalia then came back with the ceramic bowl that was now cleaned and a glass of water for her.

“Thanks,” Steph said as Amalia handed the glass of water to her. She took a couple of sips and she felt the bile in her mouth start to go away a little bit after she did.

“Are you feeling any better, mistress?” Amalia asked her once she was done.

“I think I’ll feel better if I knew where Tony was,” Steph muttered more to herself than anything else, but Amalia heard her anyway.

“Whose Tony?”

“Don’t worry, he is no one important.”

Now that was a lie, and she knew it. Tony was definitely the most important person to her in her life, and she cared about him on a very deep level. More than she lets herself show, but she wasn’t going to explain that to the young girl. It was a long and complicated story she didn’t want to explain to her just yet.

“You really don’t remember anything that has happened in the past four years, mistress?”

“No, I don’t, the last thing I remember was being in New York, I don’t remember any of this. This is not the world that I know…”

“The world you know? I’m afraid I don’t understand, mistress.”

“Never mind,” Steph said, waving her hand, “it's long and complicated to explain. Not sure you’ll believe me even if I told you. And please, call me Stephanie.”

“What?” Amalia said, looking confused.

“Call me Stephanie, it feels weird to me being called ‘mistress’.”

It was here that Amalia’s eyes went wide and she shook her head no.

“The work staff are forbidden from addressing you and Kaiser Schmidt by your names nor are we allowed to sit with you.”

“Why? Is he afraid that you might see yourself as equal to us?”

But as soon as the words left Steph’s mouth, the more it was likely that was the case. Schmidt had always considered himself superior to others on the basis of being a superhuman. By the look on Amalia’s face, she could tell that was in fact the case, and she couldn’t help but scoff at that. ‘ _ Why does that not surprise me? _ ’ she thought.

“Kaiser Schmidt sees it as disrespectful,” Amalia said. “If he catches any of the staff or anyone who isn’t a superior human addressing you two in such a way, we’ll get flogged.”

“Yeah, that definitely sounds like Schmidt,” Steph commented. “Fine, you may call me ‘ma’am’, just don’t call me mistress or Kaiserin Schmidt, especially when Schmidt is not around.”

“Yes, mistress. I mean, ma’am!”

Steph excused that, knowing that the young girl was used to calling her that, and it was going to take her some time for her to get used to calling her something else.

“Where is Schmidt now?” Steph asked her.

“He is in the city at work, mis—ma’am, he won’t be home until supper is ready.”

Steph breathed a sigh of relief, glad she didn’t have to face him now. She was still getting over the shock of being in a parallel universe, and she needed time to process it before she faced him. The only thing she could think of now was where was Tony in all of this? He was in the vortex with her so that must mean he was in this parallel universe as well, unless he landed in some other universe. The question is, if he did end up landing in this universe, where? And had HYDRA captured him? She didn’t want to think of all the torture they would put him through if in fact he was captured and prayed that he was somewhere safe. She started fiddling with the heart locket necklace that Tony gave to her years ago, and she began to feel a longing to be back in her own universe and hold those that matter the most to her, especially Tasha more than anything. She hoped more than anything that Tasha was safe with the others.

Amalia, meanwhile, was watching her mistress in both curiosity and concern. She could see the shock written all over her mistress’ face and that she was shaking. From the time Amalia was first taken away from her family and brought here to work as the personal maid of Schmidt’s wife, she has known the woman to be a fearless woman and refused to cry in front of her husband, even when he had hurt and violated her. It was a trait that Amalia admired in her and aspired to be like, so to see her shaking concerned her. This wasn’t the Stephanie Grace Schmidt that she knew, the Stephanie Grace Schmidt she knew wasn’t afraid of anything.

But, Amalia had to admit, there was definitely something different about Stephanie, but she couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it was. Minus the fact that she couldn’t exactly remember everything that has happened in the past five years now, there was definitely something different, she seemed more older than she was, as if she has had a lot of experiences than Amalia previously thought. However, seeing Stephanie visibly shake, she put that out of her mind and tried focusing on her job, and that was taking care of her mistress. She approached Steph cautiously, reaching her hand out to her, but then stopped herself in time before she touched her.

“Mis—I mean, ma’am,” she began, and she continued when Steph looked up at her. “Please, ma’am, I am worried about you, you fell down pretty hard and you are visibly shaking. Let me call a doctor to check in on you, make sure everything is okay.”

Steph was about to say no as she didn’t want any doctors to poke and prod at her right now, but she could sense the girl’s worry over her and decided to relent.

“Alright, fine, you can go do that,” she said. She then had a thought as she realized that Dr. Zola was most likely alive and added, “But no HYDRA doctors, I don’t want Schmidt to know about this, understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Amalia then curtsied before running out of the parlor room to go call a doctor, and Steph groaned as she put her hands on her temples. She rubbed them as she started to feel a headache coming, feeling all the stress of what had happened. ‘ _ First Doctor Doom and now  _ **_this?_ ** _ When will it end?! _ ’ she thought. She then looked up at the painting and the urge to hurl came into her mind, and she decided to leave the parlor room so that she wouldn’t get sick again.

It was about an hour later after Amalia had called for a doctor that one arrived. After being searched by the guards at the gate and deeming him safe enough, the doctor went inside the mansion and followed Amalia to Steph’s room where he examined her. The doctor was a man that looked to be in his late 50’s with blue eyes and graying brown hair, and he wore glasses. Steph took a good look at his face to get a facial reading, and she could tell that he was a man who had been through a lot. He had a tired, worn-out look, and it made Steph wonder what people have gone through under Schmidt’s rule. ‘ _ Nothing good, most likely _ ,’ she thought. She could also tell by the way his hands were very clammy, kept swallowing, and clearing his throat that he was very nervous.

“I am going to ask that you stop fidgeting with your necklace, Kaiserin Schmidt, in order for me to do your exam without any hindrance,” the doctor said.

“Sorry,” Steph said as she stopped fiddling with her necklace and put her hand down.

The gentle tone in Steph’s voice appeared to relax the doctor as he cleared his throat less and his hands began to feel less clammy. He felt around her throat, trying to find anything out of the ordinary before moving on to check her heart and lungs.

“Your maid tells me that you fell and hit your head,” he said as he checked her heart “Is this the first time you fainted, Kaiserin Schmidt?”

“Yes, I’ve never really had a fainting spell before,” Steph replied.

That was a lie, but she wasn’t going to explain the reason why. She didn’t want to give the doctor any reason to believe that she was crazy and no doubt report it to her husband. Even just thinking of the fact that she was married to that monster made her sick to her stomach. The doctor then checks her lungs, asking her to take deep breaths and he would move his scope every time she did.

“Heart and lungs seem perfectly normal,” he concluded once he was done, putting the scope over his neck. “I’m going to ask you some questions, Kaiserin Schmidt, and I want you to answer them honestly, okay?” When Steph nodded, he began his questions. “Have you been nauseous or dizzy lately?”

“No.”

“Do you feel the need to go to the bathroom more?”

Steph shook her head no.

“When was the first day of your last menstrual cycle?”

Steph glared at the doctor as she realized where all these questions were going, and she crossed her arms.

“I think I would know if I was pregnant or not, doctor,” she snapped at him.

“I meant no harm in the questions, Kaiserin Schmidt,” the doctor said, raising his hands up in surrender, “I just wanted to make sure that was the reason for your fainting spell or not. Some women show different symptoms, and I know that you and Kaiser Schmidt have been trying for sometime now.”

“Well, obviously, the attempts have failed.”

Amalia did not miss the sense of relief in Steph’s tone, but it was completely missed by the doctor for he patted her on the shoulder in a reassuring way.

“Do not fret, Kaiserin Schmidt, I’m sure you and your husband will conceive in the near future,” he said.

‘ _ Hopefully not… _ ’ Steph thought. She would rather die than become a breeding machine for Schmidt.

“Well, I don’t really see anything out of the ordinary, so the best thing I can say is to drink plenty of fluids and get well-rested,” he said as he got up from the chair he was sitting in to pack his supplies. “I must say, my colleagues and I were surprised when we received a call from you. Usually, it is Dr. Zola that handles all your medical stuff whenever you fall ill.”

Steph then decided to play along. If she was queen of practically the whole universe, she had to at least act the part, although she didn’t really know how is it that the Stephanie Rogers acted in this universe. She had to remind herself to ask Amalia what the Stephanie was like in this universe. She could hear Fury in the back of her head telling her to be wary in trusting the maid so easily, but she got a good sense that she could trust the young girl.

“Right, well, I just didn’t want to get Dr. Zola involved just yet,” she said to the doctor. “I just didn’t want my husband to get too excited if it ended up not being the case.”

It was here that the doctor then looked rather apprehensive, and Steph realized that he more than likely already contacted Schmidt.

“You already contacted him about this, didn’t you?” she asked him.

“Not me directly, no,” the doctor replied. “My superiors were the one to send me here, and they had already contacted Kaiser Schmidt by the time I left the hospital. I do apologize for the inconvenience of that, Kaiserin Schmidt.”

“No, it’s fine, it’s not your fault…”

Although, if she was being honest, she was a little annoyed by that. Did Schmidt have some law requiring that everyone reports what’s going on with her? It wouldn’t really surprise her if he did and she nearly scoffed at the idea of that. She guessed she’ll have to deal with the consequences of it once Schmidt gets here, something she was not looking forward to, unless she managed to find a way out of here before he did. She just needed to come up with a plan in order to do that.

“May I use your phone?” the doctor asked, breaking Steph out of her thoughts. “I need to call and report to my superiors so they can report my findings to your husband.”

Steph wanted to say no as she rather Schmidt didn’t know anything, but she just nodded anyway and gave her consent. But before the doctor left the room, she just had to ask him something that came into her mind just now.

“Is Schm—I mean, my husband on his way here?”

“I doubt it,” the doctor replied, “the Kaiser is a busy man who spends most of his time in his research facility, working on ways to make our world better. I think he would only come unless it was an emergency, such as the rebels trying to attack his home.”

The doctor did not see the sigh of relief from Steph when he said this, glad that Schmidt wouldn’t come and leave his research facility for something as simple as Steph falling and hitting her head. The doctor then excused himself as he left the room to go make his call. When the doctor finally left, Steph finally breathed a sigh of relief outloud. She hoped that she was able to be convincing that she was a loving wife and that she made Natasha proud, she had always been a bad liar and this is why Natasha was the spy and Steph was not. Amalia then approached her a couple of seconds after the doctor left the room.

“Ma’am, how come you didn’t tell the doctor about your amnesia?” she asked. “Wouldn’t it be something to mention to him?”

“And tell him what exactly? That I don’t remember the last nearly five years because this isn’t the life I lived?” Steph said. “No, he’d probably try to convince Schmidt to put me in a straight jacket and send me to an asylum. You know how well they treat people there, especially during the 1940’s.”

“Ma’am, I am so sorry for being blunt, but please don’t take offense when I say this, you’re acting very strangely,” Amalia said. “You’re speaking as if you have lived a life other than this and you’re talking about people and things I’ve never even heard of. Like, who is this man called Tony Stark? Is he perhaps a brother of Howard Stark?”

“No, Howard Stark was an only child.”

“A cousin, perhaps?”

Steph laughed at that.

“If you ever see Tony Stark in person, then you wouldn’t even think he was a cousin of Howard Stark.”

“Whatever do you mean, ma’am?”

“Nevermind, don’t worry about it.”

“Please, ma’am, you are scaring me,” Amalia said. “I’m worried about you, I feel it would be best to tell the doctor—”

“We are not telling the doctor anything!” Steph snapped at her. “I appreciate your concern, Amalia, but amnesia nor is any illness the reason I am acting like this. I’ll explain everything to you eventually, but right now, I need your word that you won’t say anything to anyone. Can you do that for me?”

Amalia seemed reluctant to do what Steph asked, but she finally relented after sometime and said, “Yes, ma’am, you have my word.”

It was then that a knock on the bedroom door was heard, and both Steph and Amalia looked to the door. The doctor poked his head into the room after they did.

“ _ Entschuldigen _ , Kaiserin Schmidt, I do not mean to intrude, but I just got off the phone with my superiors,” he said as he approached the two ladies. “Apparently, Kaiser Schmidt left his research facility about an hour ago and he is currently on his way here.”

At that, Steph nearly felt her heart drop and her heart began to beat rather rapidly. She had never been scared of Schmidt before. As her enemy, she could face him head on without any fear, but to face him as his prisoner and as basically his war trophy wife was a whole other story. She was not ready to face him yet, especially when she was only in this universe for about an hour and a half and was still processing the shock of it all.

“ **_What?_ ** Schmidt is on his way here now?” Steph nearly shouted as she sat up from the edge of her bed so quickly that it surprised both Amalia and the doctor. “How soon will he be here?”

“He’ll most likely be here any minute now,” the doctor replied.

And for what seemed like the second time that, she began to run. She would be damned if she stayed here and was forced to live as Johann Schmidt’s wife, and she didn’t care if she died trying to get out of here. She ignored the cries of her maid and the doctor as the only thing she thought of was getting the hell out of there, but as soon as she swung the door open, she ran into something hard that prevented her from running any further and then she heard a voice.

“Schmidt? Am I not your husband,  _ meine liebe Frau _ ?”

Taking a good look, Steph realized that she ran into a person. Their chest was eye-level to her, and she could see the person wearing a black uniform and the symbol of HYDRA pinned on the collar of the long black leather coat they were wearing. Looking up, she saw that a man stood in front of her and he was tall, about a couple inches taller than her, and he had dark brown hair and ice blue eyes that were cold and calculating. Seeing the man’s face up-close, she realized it was a face that she would recognize from anywhere, one that she had not seen in almost ten years now.

_ Johann Schmidt. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You are probably wondering why I didn't really show Schmidt as the Red Skull? All of that will be explained in the next chapter, and that will come as soon as I can post it. I just LOVED Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull, he made such a great Marvel villain.
> 
> Entschuldigen-Excuse me
> 
> meine liebe Frau-I was going for "my darling wife" but it most likely means "my beautiful wife". Google translator can be real shotty at times.


	3. Johann Schmidt and The Resistance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steph comes face-to-face with Schmidt after nearly 10 years and Tony tells the truth to the resistance soldiers and gets dragged into the resistance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I realized that I messed up in the first couple of chapters: I thought Howard Stark was born in the same year as Steve Rogers, but turns out, he was actually born a year earlier than Steve so that would make him a year older than Steve (and a year older than Steph), so my bad, I am going to fix that as soon as I can. Also, I realized that Schmidt's eyes are blue and not brown, so I am going to fix that as well. When I was trying to research what his eye color was, I did not get a whole lot of information, so I went by what I saw in the movie.
> 
> A fair warning, some of the Howling Commandos will be a little out of character due to the situation they are in within this story, but I will try my best to keep them in character. Dugan will be the one who is probably the most out of character and you'll see why in this chapter as well in later chapters.
> 
> Remember, flames are not accepted but I will take constructive criticism, enjoy the chapter.

Steph stared at the man before her with complete disbelief, almost not believing that she was seeing Johann Schmidt in the flesh, but it most definitely was him. That same cold, calculating ice-blue eyes and the same smirk that she could recognize from almost a mile away. She had not seen Schmidt like this in almost ten years, unless you count her going to the planet Vormir to return the Soul Stone, but the Schmidt on Vormir was different from the one that was standing in front of her. The one on Vormir showed him as the Red Skull with no mask, and the one on Vormir had no thought or opinion, his sole purpose was to guard the Soul Stone and he had done it for decades. The Schmidt in front of her was nothing like the one on Vormir: this one was like the Schmidt she saw during the war, except he had an even madder glint in his eyes and he was wearing a mask to show who he was prior to the serum and to hide the monster he was underneath. Why he was wearing a mask was beyond her understanding, but the Schmidt in front of her was definitely the one she last saw nearly ten years ago on the Valkyrie; however, there was definitely something different with this Schmidt, but she couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it was.

Schmidt, meanwhile, was staring down at her and he raised an eyebrow at the look on her face. “Are you alright,  _ meine liebchen _ ?” he asked. “You look rather pale.”

Steph says nothing at first, still rather speechless. It took her almost fifteen seconds to get out of her shock and to realize she had yet to respond to his question when he gave her a rather impatient look.

“Husband,” she finally said, saying the title with some difficulty, “I did not think you would be home so early.”

“Oh, my dear,” Schmidt said as a smirk formed on his face, “I’ll always come straight home when it comes to my wife. I felt compelled to come home and check on you when I heard about your fall.”

“I hardly would consider a simple fainting spell as an emergency for you to come home from your facility.”

“Nonsense, you are my wife,” Schmidt responded. “I wanted to make sure you were alright.”

“Well, I’m fine, there is really nothing for you to worry about,” Steph snapped at him, crossing her arms.

It was clear that Schmidt noticed her attitude, for he gave her a mocked hurt look and said, “Oh,  _ meine liebchen _ , don’t be like that, you know that I care for you.”

He reached a gloved hand towards Steph and caressed her cheek with the back of it. The touch alone was enough to make Steph shiver and she recoiled from his touch, feeling disgust in the pit of her stomach. Schmidt raised an eyebrow at her again when he saw her behavior and narrowed his eyes at her, and Steph realized her mistake. While she still may technically be Stephanie Grace Rogers, the Stephanie Rogers in this universe in 1949 may be different from who she was. She had to be careful with what she said or how she acted around Schmidt, or it would give him reason to suspect something is wrong.

There was the sound of someone knocking on Steph’s bedroom door and then someone came in. The person who came in was a man who was short and wearing a suit with a bowtie, and he also wore round glasses with a white lab coat over his suit. Immediately, Steph recognized the man as Dr. Arnim Zola, and she glared at him. ‘ _ So, he is alive and is right where he belongs, the cunning little snake _ ,’ Steph thought. Dr. Zola approached Schmidt and Steph before bowing to her before coming back up and giving her a small smile.

“Kaiserin Schmidt,” he began, “your husband and I heard you had a nasty fall and we came straight here as soon as we heard.”

His tone was almost rather concerning and maybe in another lifetime if he wasn’t a doctor who did unethical experiments for a corrupt organization, Steph would have been touched by his concern, but it only just pissed her off. Here was the man responsible for what he had put Bucky through in her universe and was most likely putting him through it right now, and she couldn’t do a damn thing about it! The thought of that made her so angry that she began to shake and ball her hands into fists. It was clear that Dr. Zola noticed her anger, for he began to look nervous and back away from her. As much as Steph wanted to go up and punch him, she had to keep her anger in check, counting from three in her head before unballing her fists, her anger dissipated somewhat before responding to him.

“I’m touched by my husband’s and your concern,  _ Dr. Zola _ ,” she said, spitting out his name with some spite, “but you both coming here was unnecessary, the doctor here did not find anything wrong with me.”

“You must forgive my wife, Dr. Zola,” Schmidt spoke up. “It seems as if she is in a spirited mood today.”

“Oh, joy,” Dr. Zola said with a hint of sarcasm.

Schmidt then looked to the doctor as if noticing him in Steph’s room for the first time.

“I am assuming you are the doctor from the hospital who examined my wife?”

“Kaiser Schmidt,” the doctor said, bowing. Steph could see him shaking and the fear in his eyes was palpable. “I actually just finished my exam on your wife, I did not find anything—”

“ _ Danke, Doktor _ , for examining  _ meine Frau _ before Dr. Zola and I got here,” Schmidt interrupted him, his tone rather dismissive, “but I think we can take it from here.”

“But, Kaiser Schmidt, I thoroughly examined her, I didn’t…”

The doctor then shut his mouth when Schmidt gave him a look, deciding it was best not to argue with the dictator that could kill him just for arguing; instead, he just bowed, calling both Schmidt and Steph by their respective titles before being escorted out by a guard. Once the doctor was escorted out, Schmidt turned his attention to Steph and the latter stared right back, giving him a challenging glare to show him she was not afraid of him. Wife of Johann Schmidt or not, she was not going to show she was afraid and, considering she has faced things much worse than him such as as titan maniac, she was definitely not afraid.

“When I received word from the hospital that you fell and had called them, I was quite perplexed,” Schmidt said. “You know that Dr. Zola handles all your medical needs, why call a regular doctor?”

“I saw no reason to get Dr. Zola involved in something as simple as falling and hitting my head,  _ mein lieber Ehemann _ ,” Steph, saying the German phrase with a bit of bite in her tone.

“You are definitely in a spirited mood today,” Schmidt said with a chuckle. “I wonder what made you in such a mood today?”

Steph gave him a knowing smile. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” she responded.

She did not mean for that to be sexual in any way, but it was clear Schmidt took it as one for he gave her a suggestive look.

“Oh, I would very much like to know,” he said. His smile was borderline leering before he leaned down to whisper in her ear. “And I shall enjoy breaking that spirit once more.”

Steph shivered more at Schmidt’s words than at the feel of Schmidt breathing down her neck, and her heartbeat quickened in fear as his words processed through her mind. She did not want to imagine how the Schmidt in this universe “broke her spirit”, but it was a little too late for that as the thought of it crossed her mind and she began to back away from Schmidt in fear. There were few things Steph was afraid of, and that was one of them. Of course, as a super soldier, she didn’t have to worry about it often because she was stronger than ten men, and she had some close calls before, but to hear that Schmidt had managed to violate her made her sick. It was obvious that Schmidt saw Steph’s reaction, for he smiled at her, obviously getting off on her fear.

“Perhaps, though, you can fill me in later on what put you in such a spirited mood. Dr. Zola!”

Dr. Zola then approached closer, coming forward with a steel briefcase and placing it next to Steph who was now sitting on the edge of her bed. Steph was at first confused, wondering what was in the briefcase only to find that it was not a briefcase when Zola opened it, it was some kind of device. On one side, there were a bunch of medical supplies and on the other side was the device. There was a switch, which Zola flipped and the device hummed to life and there was a screen on the device that came on when Dr. Zola flipped the switch. Right next to the switch was a tiny contraption as if it needed something to attach to it. At first, Steph thought the device was a weapon of some sorts, but realized it was not and that it looked more like a reading device. To read what, though, she did not know and curiosity got the best of her.

“What is that?” she asked them.

It was here that Schmidt and Dr. Zola gave her a surprised look before they narrowed in confusion.

“You don’t remember this device?” Dr. Zola asked her in surprise, and Steph shook her head no. “You’ve seen this device before, Kaiserin Schmidt…”

It was then that Steph realized her mistake and nearly slapped herself, but she tried remedying her mistake by simply forgetting.

“Oh, right, forgive me, Dr. Zola, but it has been some time since I last saw it. Do you mind reminding me what it is for?”

Both Dr. Zola and Schmidt looked at each other with a suspicious look on their face, and Steph began to worry they suspected something was up. She had always been bad at lying, as people often reminded her, so she hoped they believed her. She sighed with relief when neither one questioned her about her strange behavior and Dr. Zola began to explain how the device worked.

“This device is a reading device, it reads all your body functions such as your blood count, your hormonal levels, etc. It reads them at a faster rate than what a normal hospital will be able to do. I would just need a small sample of blood and I attach it here…” He referred to the contraption. “…and it gives me the results of your blood work within minutes.”

Steph gets the idea of the actual function of the device.

“You mean to find out if I’m pregnant or not?”

“That is one of the functions of it.”

“So, this is why you left your facility early,” Steph said to Schmidt, turning her attention to Schmidt and narrowing her eyes at him, “it was to find out if I was pregnant or not.”

“It is one of your duties as my wife and as  _ die Kaiserin _ ,” Schmidt responded. “You must forgive me,  _ meine liebchen _ , for getting a little excited and wanting to make sure that was the case of your fainting spell or not.”

Steph felt herself bristle at that and she had to fight the urge to punch the man who had caused so much suffering for the world and is currently her husband in this world, She nearly forgot how much of a sexist pig he was and how he viewed her as nothing but a breeding machine. She desperately wanted to show him what she was really made of, but she had to hold herself back. She could not give them any more indication that something was off, so she kept her composure, having to count from 10 to calm herself down.

Dr. Zola had already put on a pair of gloves at this point and he was now ready to begin drawing blood from her. Steph, being her usual self, was not going to let them without a bit of a fight, so she crossed her arms to show she was not going to let them draw her blood. Dr. Zola gave her an expectant look as if telling her with his expression to uncross her arms and then became annoyed when she did not do what she asked.

“Kaiserin Schmidt, I need you to uncross your arms in order for me to draw the blood…”

When Steph refused to uncross her arms, Schmidt got impatient and grabbed a hold of her left wrist, pulling her arm out. Steph was nearly surprised at the sheer strength of Schmidt being able to do that, but that did not stop her from fighting back as she tried pulling it back only to have Schmidt grip her wrist even tighter.

“We can either do this the easy way or I can have Baron Zemo visit your friend again.”

Steph did not know what ‘friend’ Schmidt was referring to, she was thinking that maybe he was referring to Bucky as she knew he survived the fall, but she couldn’t say for sure if Bucky in this universe was alive or not. She recognized the name, though, when Schmidt said it: Dr. Heinrich Zemo or known as Baron Zemo to Steph and the Howling Commandos and the SSR, one of Schmidt’s right hand men during the war. Steph remembered running into him a couple of times during her missions and how much of a sadist he was, enjoying torturing his victims. Whichever ‘friend’ Schmidt was referring to would no doubt not enjoy the baron’s visit and Steph would not even wish her worst enemy to go through what Baron Zemo did (or is doing) to his victims, so she let Schmidt outstretch her left arm so Dr. Zola could draw her blood.

“If I didn’t know any better, I would say that you are acting like your old self,” Schmidt said to Steph as Dr. Zola rubbed a disinfect wipe on the front of her elbow. “I would think you would know better than that, there are consequences to that behavior.”

“And what exactly is wrong with my behavior?” Steph asked, flinching a little bit when she felt the pinch of the needle going into her elbow. “I am who I am, and you can’t change that even if you tried.”

“I have changed that behavior and I’ll do it again if I have to,” Schmidt replied threateningly.

Steph did not want to know how is it that he did. She could only imagine what he did and the thought of that sent chills down her spine.

Dr. Zola was finally finished collecting the blood sample and he quickly pressed a small cloth over the puncture after taking the needle out, wrapping a cloth around the small cloth to keep the small cloth in place. He took the vial of blood he had in his hands and put it on the contraption, and a sound was heard from the device and then the screen changed once it did. Steph watched Schmidt watch Dr. Zola do this with an almost hopeful expression on his face, and it made her think how desperate Schmidt must be to want her pregnant. That’s when she thought of something and it made her heart almost stop: what if sometime between fighting Doctor Doom in her universe and being thrown in this one that she got pregnant with Schmidt’s child? The thought of that and not being able to have a say to keep the child made Steph scared to death. She’s heard of how women have been forced to carry babies to term during times of war, and she was thankful to have won the war and not have to go through that, but it was clear that she was currently living her nightmare of not winning the war back in 1945. She prayed that she wasn’t as everyone in the room waited in anticipation for the results of Steph’s bloodwork.

A beeping sound could be heard from the device, indicating that the results were completed. By the look of disappointment on Schmidt’s face, Steph realized that the pregnancy test came back negative and she felt a huge relief from that. She did not know what she would do if she was pregnant with Schmidt’s child, it will definitely complicate things in her getting out of here.

Schmidt turned his attention on her and Steph tried her best to not show how relieved she was at not being pregnant. He gave her a small smile, which did not reach his eyes, and it told Steph how disappointed he was at her not being pregnant.

“It is alright,  _ meine liebchen _ , we just have to keep trying.”

The urge to hurl came up again and Steph had to cover her mouth to try her damn hardest to hold it back. She managed to keep it in, though (thankfully), and moved her hand away from her mouth once the urge had passed.

“As I said, I did not want to get Dr. Zola involved when I just simply fainted and hit my head,” she finally said. “Driving here to check up on me was rather pointless since you now have to drive back to your facility to continue your heinous work.”

Instead of getting mad like Steph expected him to, Schmidt laughed at the last part of her sentence.

“Oh, I never get bored of your witty remarks, meine liebchen, it definitely makes things interesting,” he said, and Steph knew that endearing name was going to work on her last nerve soon if he kept calling her that. “But you know that I have a small facility here in our house so that I can work from home if I need to, Dr. Zola and I will just work there until supper is ready.”

Steph’s interest was piqued when Schmidt said that. She guessed she should not have been surprised that Schmidt built a small facility at the mansion, considering that the man was in love with his work (‘ _ Kind of reminds you of someone, doesn’t it? _ ’ she thought as Tony came to her mind), but it definitely made things easier for her. This small facility would most likely have information on weapons, her, or anything related to the rebellion; it could be the key to her getting out of here. She had to be careful, though, and sneak her way into the facility in order to do that, she could not give Schmidt of HYDRA any more reason that she was not the Stephanie Rogers AKA Stephanie Schmidt in this universe.

“Amalia, will supper be ready by the usual time?” Schmidt suddenly asked the maid, turning his attention to Amalia and bringing Steph out of her thoughts.

“I am pretty sure it is on schedule, Kaiser Schmidt, I can check with the cook to make sure…”

“See to it that you do.”

“Yes, sir.”

Amalia curtsied and she was about to leave, but she hesitated when she looked at Steph and gave her a concerned look. Schmidt appeared to notice her hesitation, though, for he snapped at her.

“Are you going to check with the cook now or are you going to stand there all day like a fish out of water? Go check with the cook now,  _ dummes Mädchen! _ ”

“Oh,  _ ja, es tut mir Leid, Herr _ ,” Amalia said, looking a bit embarrassed.

She then left the room to go check on the cook, but not before giving Steph one last concerned look. Steph nodded at Amalia to let her know that she was going to be okay and it was okay for her to leave. Although, if she was being honest, she did not want to be left alone with Schmidt, but Amalia was only a maid and, therefore, had no choice but to obey. That and it was most likely she was afraid of incurring Schmidt’s wrath. Steph could handle Schmidt, she has faced a megalomaniac titan before, she can face someone who is practically her equal in terms of her power.

“You could have said that more nicely, ya know?” she said to him once Amalia left the room.

“You have always been too soft on the working staff, it is why you leave the discipling to me. Sometimes, all the staff needs is a firm hand.”

‘ _ By ‘firm hand’, you mean threaten them with bodily harm or actually do bodily harm _ ,’ Steph thought, wanting to say that outloud but held her tongue.

It was then that Schmidt began to take off his leather gloves, and Steph expected to see red skin once he did. To her immense surprise, though, she did not see red skin like she expected, instead, the skin looked rather normal with white skin and normal looking digits and fingernails with lines on his palm that she could see clear as day. Of course, Steph has never seen Schmidt without wearing gloves, so she couldn’t really see what his hands looked like underneath, but the hand looked… _ normal _ . At first, Steph thought it was synthetic, that Schmidt was trying to hide what was really underneath that mask, but then she came to a realization that made her stop and think.

When Steph first met Schmidt during their brief encounter in Kreischberg, she recalled seeing how his face was rather expressionless. It wasn’t until he took off the mask that Steph was able to see the monster he truly was, and she was able to see his facial expressions more clearly. The Schmidt in front of her, though, was showing more expressions on his face and she could not see any stitches on his neck to indicate he was wearing a mask. It made Steph realize that Schmidt was in fact not wearing a mask, and she was so shocked at this revelation that she expressed her shock without even thinking.

“Your face, it’s no longer a mask…”

Both Schmidt and Dr. Zola gave Steph a surprised look before looking at each other with concern, and Steph wanted to smack herself for saying that outloud. She did not want to give them any reason to suspect something was wrong and here she was giving them all the reasons to suspect something!

“Yes, I’m no longer wearing a mask,” Schmidt responded. “With the work of Dr. Zola and his team, they managed to reverse the negative side effects of Dr. Erskine’s first serum a year and a half ago, but you already knew this.”

He then gave her a suspicious look.

“Did you forget that?”

Steph tried thinking of a lie and came up with one quickly, it made her grateful at how her time spent as a fugitive and learning a thing or two from Natasha helped her get better at lying. She was still not a great liar, but she got better at it.

“Oh, right, you must forgive me,” she began, trying to feign it as simple forgetfulness, “I must have hit my head harder than I thought that I almost forgot about that.”

“You hit your head so hard that you had a slight case of amnesia?” Schmidt asked her, giving her an incredulous look, obviously not believing her lie.

‘ _ Shit, he got me there _ ,’ Steph thought. She could not think of another lie to come up with to deflect suspicion, so she just remained quiet. She should have known better that feigning forgetfulness was not going to work on Schmidt, he had the same powers as her and, therefore, knew everything that came with it, even enhanced memory. Because of the serum, Steph was able to remember everything, even the smallest details, so pretending to forget was obviously not going to work and she wished she didn’t do that.

“Perhaps we should have Dr. Zemo check on you?” Schmidt suggested. “Make sure that your fall didn’t make you forget anything else?”

“I appreciate the concern,  _ mein Lieber Ehemann _ , but I have no interest in being checked by your residential sadistic doctor.”

This appeared to have deflect some suspicion, for it made Schmidt laugh and decided not to push for any more on Steph’s “amnesia”.

“Well, at least you remember Dr. Zemo,” he said. “I suppose that you are well enough and don’t need to be checked by him, for now.”

Amalia then came back in the room and informed Schmidt that supper would be ready on time.

“ _ Trefflich _ , you just ring me and Dr. Zola as soon as it is ready,” Schmidt said to her who only curtsied in response before turning his attention back to Steph. “Dr. Zola and I will be working in my facility. Now, you be on your best behavior while we are in there.”

‘ _ I make no promises _ ,’ Steph thought to herself. Schmidt most likely forbade her from entering his facility, but no matter what, she was going to break into it, find what she needed, and then get the hell out of here. Her time spent being a SHIELD agent and living the life of a fugitive helped her learn a thing or two about being stealthy, something that Schmidt did not know about and could use to her advantage.

It was then that Schmidt lifted her chin up and leaned down. Steph knew he was going to kiss her, and instinct kicked in and she pulled herself away from his grasp, leaning away from him. There was no way she was going to let him kiss her, wife of Johann Schmidt or not! Schmidt saw this and a look of irritation crossed his features. He stood up straight before suddenly grabbing a hold of her wrist and pulling her up to stand and into his arms. Next thing Steph knew, Schmidt had leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. Steph fought against him, pushing as hard as she could against him only to find…she couldn’t.

This made her stop in surprise for a moment as she realized she couldn’t push him away, and Schmidt took that as a sign of her consent for he deepened the kiss and Steph tried fighting against him only to find she still couldn’t. He was  _ strong _ , stronger than her, and that made it difficult for her to push him away. Why couldn’t she push him away? She was just as strong as him, so she should be able to fight easily against him. Was there something wrong with the serum? Did Doctor Doom possibly do something to it when he blasted her into this universe?

The kiss Schmidt gave her was rough and it was very obvious he did not care for being gentle. Steph has had her share of kisses where they would sometimes get too rough (Brock Rumlow definitely came to mind), but Schmidt was really rough that Steph would be surprised if he didn’t leave a bruise on her lips. It was sometime before Schmidt finally pulled away and a smirk formed on his face when he saw the look of shock and anger on Steph’s face.

“You look as if you have forgotten that we have kissed each other before,” he said. “I would give you a refresher of other things we have done, but alas, work calls me. I’ll see you at supper.”

He gives her one last kiss—a quick peck on the lips—before he and Dr. Zola turned and left the room with the latter taking the device with him. Steph watched them leave and once they did, she brought a hand up and her fingers touched her lips where Schmidt’s own lips were just now. It was almost as if she could not believe what just happened and she wanted to believe that this was all just some sort of nightmare, but she knew it wasn’t. This was very real, and she had to find a way out of here and  _ fast _ .

* * *

It took sometime, but Tony, the three resistance soldiers, and the two children managed to make it out of the city alive. Due to Tony’s stunt that he pulled with the tank earlier, all of HYDRA soldiers that were in the city were on edge and were on the search for “the man in the iron suit” or “Iron Man” for short, so they all had to be careful in making sure that they weren’t spotted; the irony of being called by his superhero identity in this universe, though, was not lost to Tony and he would have laughed about it if it weren’t for the seriousness of their situation. While on their way of trying to escape from the city, they ran into three more resistance soldiers who had a couple of innocent civilians with them, and they all escaped the city together, sometimes having to go one at a time around corners in small groups. Once they reached the outskirts of the city, Dugan led them off of the main road and towards the forest, having to keep low to the ground in order to prevent themselves from being spotted by any HYDRA units in the distance.

The two little children stuck to Tony’s side almost the entire time with Anya sticking by his side the most. When Tony, Jimmy, and Anya finally caught up with the others, Dmitry was so happy at seeing his little sister alive that he started crying and he thanked Tony profusely. It was very clear that the two children admired Tony as they kept looking up at him in awe and wouldn’t leave his side unless they had to. Most of the soldiers found it cute, save for Dugan, and Tony was very touched by it. He was especially fond of little Anya as she reminded him of someone from back in his own universe, she had the same hair color as her, the only difference is that Anya’s eyes were brown. Thinking about that person brought a fond smile to his face, but it also made him worry about her. He hoped that she was safe and that the team managed to bring Doctor Doom down so that she was not in any danger.

It was when they were about 50 miles away from the city and deep in the forest that they walked up to a hill, and they saw an encampment when they came to the top of the hill. In the encampment, there soldiers wearing green or brown going in and out of the tents that were in the encampment, making Tony and the others realize it was an encampment for the rebellion. The soldiers were going over their maps and talking to soldiers from long distance on their radios with some listening to radios with the sounds of people speaking in German in rather frantic voices. There were also innocent civilians with some all together in one group, huddled together around a fire or close together, having blankets over them just to stay warm from the cold. Some civilians were wounded and these civilians were in a tent where medics were going in and out of, tending to them. As soldiers and innocent civilians were walking back and forth, a black soldier approached Dugan and the others, and Tony could not help but think how the soldier looked familiar but could not figure out why.

“ _ Dugan! _ ” the soldier shouted to Dugan, embracing him before letting him go. “I’m glad to see you and the others alive! I heard that you guys ran into some trouble on your way out of the city and HYDRA is apparently on edge over some guy in an iron suit, they are calling him Iron Man or something. Do you know anything about that?”

“Oh, believe me, I know plenty…”

The soldier gave Dugan a confused look, and that is when Dugan stepped to the side so that the soldier could get a full view of Tony. The soldier’s eyes went wide when he finally got a better look at Tony who was still in his full Iron Man suit, looking at Tony up and down and seeing technology that he most likely has never seen before.

“Jones, I would like you to meet the man in the iron suit, he claims his name is Tony Stark,” Dugan said to the soldier.

“Tony Stark?” the soldier named Jones repeated, turning his attention to Dugan. “Who in the hell is Tony Stark?”

Tony put Anya, who he was carrying in his arms due to not being able to walk because of her fall, down and lifted his hands up to his mask to take it off. Once he took it off and Jones was able to get a good look at Tony’s face, Jones’ eyes went wide with shock and Tony prepared for what he knew was about to come: the old mistaking him for his father just because he was the spitting image of him.

“Howard?!”

_ There we go… _

“I believe the man said my name is Tony Stark, not Howard,” Tony said.

Jones blinked a few times and shook his head as if waking himself from his shock.

“Sorry, you just look so much like Howard Stark. Are you related to him?”

“Well, um, you see, that is kind of a funny story…” Tony began.

“We’ll discuss that later,” Dugan interrupted before turning his attention to Jones. “Status report.”

Jones gave Dugan a look, wondering why the man was being so cross with Tony, but gave the status report anyway.

“All parties have been accounted for, we were only waiting for one last party and that was you guys. We lost about 100 men and we so far had about 1,000 civilians that lost their lives, according to our other units.”

“How many survivors do we have here?”

“Including the ones you just brought? About 30 with some that were wounded. Most are able to walk, but others, not so much.”

“How many are not able to walk?”

“Five.”

“Make that six,” Tony spoke up, pointing to Anya who was only standing on one leg when they looked at him. “She sprained her ankle when she fell.”

“Very well then, six that can’t walk,” Jones said. “What should we do, Dugan?”

Dugan appeared to be in thought for a moment before giving out commands.

“Alright, here is what we are going to do, have the men tend to the wounded as quickly as possible and to prioritize the ones with the most severe cases,” he began. “Any others will need to be a temporary fix until it can be managed more at the pick-up location, any cases that can’t be fixed as quick as possible will need to be carried by someone who is able-bodied. We need to get moving as soon as possible, who knows when HYDRA will figure out that this guy…” He points to Tony. “…is no longer in the city and start looking for him outside of it?”

“Right,” Jones said with a nod of his head. “I’ll give the command and tell everyone to start moving out soon, I’ll keep listenin’ to the radio to track HYDRA’s movements.”

He began to leave in order to do that, but then he was stopped by Dugan.

“Actually, we need to talk,” he said. “Go ahead and give out the command, but meet us in the commander’s tent after that. There are some things that Iron Boy here has got to explain and you need to be a part of it, it has to do with our Stephanie.”

He whispered the last part when Jones gave him a confused look. The mention of Stephanie’s name made Jones look at him in surprise, but he gave a nod of understanding before he left to give out the commands.

“You,” Dugan said to Tony and then pointed to the two children by his side, “take these two to the infirmary and have someone tend to her sprained ankle, and then meet us in our commander’s tent. You have a lot of explaining to do and we want answers  _ now! _ ”

Tony sighed, knowing how he was not going to enjoy having to explain everything to them, but he figured he was going to have to do it sometime. He practically gave away who he was and he now had to explain how he got here. He picked up Anya and indicated to Dmitry to follow him and he walked them towards the infirmary tent.

“ _ Mr. Iron Man, are you in trouble? _ ” Anya asked Tony as he walked them over there.

Tony looked into Anya’s eyes that were so full of fear and concern that he was rather moved by it. Her and her little brother have been through so much already and yet, the little girl had such a big heart that she showed concern for others instead of herself, even in a world that is torn by war and being ruled over by a ruthless dictator and his organization.

“ _ No, I’m not in trouble _ ,” Tony began. ‘ _ At least I hope not _ ,’ he thought before he continued, “ _ I just need to talk to the good soldiers about grown-up stuff. Don’t worry too much about it, your older brother and the doctors here will take good care of you while I am talking to them, okay? _ ”

Anya reluctantly let Tony hand her over to one of the medics and waved her and her brother goodbye with the promise that he’ll be back. He left the infirmary to go find the commander’s tent and it wasn’t until he asked someone who led him to the tent that he was able to find it. In the tent, he could see Jones, Dugan, Jimmy, and Dernier talking to each other and Jones giving the others a look of shock and disbelief. It wasn’t until he got a little closer to them that he was able to hear what they were talking about.

“…it is just not possible!” Jones cried out. “I mean, I know the dude is practically the spitting image of him, but there is just no way he is Howard Stark’s son! The man is twice Howard’s age!”

“Except it would explain how he came out of nowhere and the advanced technology on his suit,” Jimmy said.

“You can’t be serious, Jimmy?!” Dugan said in an incredulous tone. “You don’t actually believe him, do you? For all we know, he could be a HYDRA spy, making all of this stuff up in order to get into our ranks.”

Tony could feel his blood boil at hearing that. If there is any group that he hated more, it was HYDRA, so to be accused of being a spy for them really ticked him off! He kept his anger at bay, though, as he tried to reason with himself. If the situation was reversed, he’d be in disbelief too, so he kept his anger at bay for now before clearing his throat, gaining the attention of the four soldiers.

“So, I’m here, what did you want to talk about with me?”

“Well, to start with, why don’t you tell us who you are and where did you come from?” Dugan asked, crossing his arms and giving Tony a stern look. “And while you’re at it, explain how is it that you know Captain America?”

“It is very long and complicated to explain…”

“You got 20 minutes to explain then before we need to start moving out,” Dugan replied. “Your time to explain starts now.”

Tony took a deep breath before he began to explain everything: he started by explaining who he was and how he came to be the superhero known as Iron Man before moving on to explaining how he met Steph and how the Avengers came to be, broke up, and then coming back together. He explained as much as he could within a 20-minute timeframe, a lot happened in 8-9 years for it to be condensed down so he explained as much as he could. The only things he did not mention was the fact that Bucky was alive and had worked with HYDRA as a brainwashed assassin for years and the Tesseract that Schmidt was powering his weapons with was an infinity stone. There were those as well as the fact that he and Steph had a long and complicated romantic relationship, that was another thing that was too long and complicated to tell.

By the time Tony is finished explaining everything, the soldiers are quiet for a couple of minutes or so, all four of them looking at him with wide eyes, their faces in complete shock and disbelief with some of them having their mouths hanging open. It wasn’t until maybe about a couple minutes after Tony was done explaining everything that they all finally spoke up with Jones speaking up first then Jimmy then Dugan and then finally Dernier in broken English.

“So let me get this straight, you are from a parallel universe from the year 2020 and you are basically the son of Howard Stark who is known as Iron Man from said universe?”

“Steph was able to defeat Schmidt back in 1945 from said universe and then was brought back to life almost seventy years later from being frozen in ice?”

“Now she is working with a group of superheroes that you call the Avengers and you guys fight against threats of the Earth?”

“And you and Steph were fighting against some guy named Doctor Doomsday who blasted you and Steph into this universe and that’s how you ended up here?”

“Yep, that pretty much sums it all up!” Tony said.

The soldiers continued to stare at him in disbelief, and it was quiet between them before Dugan finally scoffed and spoke up.

“This is so unbelievable, that is the most insane cock-and-bull story I have ever heard!”

“It’s the truth,” Tony snapped, feeling himself getting irritated with the man. He had put up with Dugan’s snide comments for some time now, but he was now reaching his breaking point. “You can believe me or not, but I wouldn’t lie about this!”

“So then, you really do know Stephanie Rogers and work with a team of superheroes called the Avengers?” Jimmy asked him, a look of amazement crossing his features.

“Yes, at least the one from my universe, that is…”

“Oh, come off it, Jimmy!” Dugan cried. “You actually believe this guy?”

“Granted, it is hard to believe, but Schmidt himself went after something that no one believed in and yet he managed to find it and harnessed its power to wipe out half of the world,” Jimmy said. “Plus, how else does that explain how he came out of nowhere and the badass technology he’s wearing? Not to mention he seems to know Stephanie Rogers— _ our Stephanie _ —and he looks and acts like Howard. I know it all sounds crazy and unbelievable, Dugan, but I’m willing to give this guy the benefit of the doubt…”

From the moment he first saw him, Tony had a good feeling about this Jimmy dude and he was glad his first impression was right. He seemed like a decent guy, unlike the one in the bowler hat, and Tony was just glad to have someone believe him. It was very clear, though, that Dugan did not believe him, for he just got more upset.

“Well, I, for one, am not giving him the benefit of the doubt!” he cried. “Everyone knows who Captain America is, even HYDRA. For all we know, he is a HYDRA spy ordered to feed us this bullshit in order to infiltrate our ranks!”

And that is when Tony had enough. He will take all the snide comments and the name-calling and disbelief from this guy, but he will not take being accused of a HYDRA spy, not after all the shit that HYDRA has put him and Stephanie through. So, next thing the four soldiers knew, Tony was up in Dugan’s face, and the three soldiers were so surprised that they were ready to pull out their weapons only to stop them midair and backed away when they could practically feel the anger radiating off of Tony. The only one who didn’t back down was Dugan himself who only gave Tony a challenging glare, daring him to fight him. While Dugan was just a couple of inches taller than Tony and was bigger in body bulk, it did not deter Tony from wanting to kick this guy’s ass; instead of doing that, though, he just gave Dugan a piece of his mind.

“Listen here, dickwad, I will tolerate all your rude comments and you calling me crazy, I wouldn’t believe it either if I was in your shoes, but I  _ will not _ tolerate being accused of a HYDRA spy!” Tony spat at him. “I will never work for the same organization that killed my parents and had it not been for Steph, they would have killed me too. So, don’t you fucking  **_ever_ ** accuse me of being a spy for an organization that destroyed everything Steph and I ever cared about! I have a suit and I won’t hesitate to kick your ass with it if you ever do.”

It was quiet for a while as the two men just glared at each other, their anger towards each other apparent and not wanting to back down from their staredown. The three other soldiers, meanwhile, watched the two with bated breath, wondering if one or the other was going to throw a punch or two. It wasn’t until Jones spoke up that Tony finally turned his attention away from Dugan to him.

“HYDRA killed Howard?”

Tony nodded in response.

“As well as my mother, they sent Bu—an assassin to kill them. My dad had learned to recreate the Super Soldier Serum, and HYDRA had learned of this, so they killed him and then my mother because she was collateral damage. They made it look like they had died in a car accident, I would not have found out had it not been for Steph…”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Jimmy said.

He could see the look of sorrow on Tony’s face and it looked rather genuine. It was either that or the man was good at acting, but the way he got so angry when Dugan accused him of being a spy told Jimmy a different story. It was then that their meeting interrupted when a woman—a civilian—came into their tent and approached them.

“Excuse me, I’m sorry for interrupting, but are you the man that everyone is calling Iron Man?” she asked Tony in a thick Russian accent.

“Yes, I’m Iron Man, how can I help you?” Tony asked the woman.

All of a sudden, the woman started bursting into tears and had put her arms around Tony to hug him, crying into Tony’s shoulder, and Tony could hear her muttering thank you in Russian under her breath. This surprised both the soldiers and Tony, and the latter was not sure what the woman was thanking him for, but he just let her cry into his shoulder and gave her a rather awkward comforting pat on the back of her shoulder.

“Thank you so much!” the woman said again when she finally pulled away from Tony, wiping the tears from her eyes. “Because of you, my little Anya and Dmitry are alive.”

It was then that Tony realized that this was most likely Anya and Dmitry’s mother or, at least, a family relative.

“Are you Anya and Dmitry’s mother?”

“I am,” the woman nodded with tears in her eyes still. “Because of you, my children are still alive. I was so worried at not being able to see them again when I lost them during the attack, but you, you saved them! My children told me what you did and for that, you have my thanks.”

“Don’t mention it, I was just doing my job,” Tony replied.

He started to feel the familiar warmth go throughout his body, though, whenever someone thanked him. A long time ago, he would revel in the praises, but now it just made him feel good to know he made a positive difference, even though his actions did cause HYDRA to be on edge and hunt for him. It did make things a bit difficult to get out of the city, but they made it out, and Tony was just glad to be alive and was able to help other people live to see another day.

The woman thanked him again before finally leaving and that is when another soldier came into the tent.

“Christ, can’t you see that we are in the middle of a meeting?” Dugan snapped at him.

“I’m sorry, sir, but I wouldn’t interrupt unless it was for something important.”

“Very well, speak!”

“Just translated a message on HYDRA’s radio: they plan on nuking the city. They could not find Iron Man, so they’re nuking it on the safe side,” the soldier reported. “Also, just got a transmission from the colonel, he’s requesting that we bring Iron Man to our base to whoever has him in their ranks…”

Tony shot his eyebrows up in surprise. The leader of one of the resistance divisions wanted to see  _ him? _ He was almost surprised, but then again, he supposed he shouldn’t have been, he did take out almost an entire unit and then blew up their tank. But it would also mean not being able to find Stephanie if he went with them, and he did not want to get involved into a fight that wasn’t his own.

“ _ WHAT?! _ You can’t be serious?!” Dugan shouted at the soldier, obviously not pleased at hearing this.

“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger,” Tony said, making Dugan glare at him in response.

“I am only relaying the colonel’s order, sir,” the soldier said to Dugan, basically repeating what Tony said, just in different words.

Dugan gritted his teeth, obviously getting angry and frustrated at the situation before finally saying something.

“Alright, fine, tell the colonel we have the Iron Man in our ranks and we will be bringing him to our base. Get everyone ready, we need to get out of here before HYDRA has squads search for us outside of the city.”

“Wait a second, what makes you think I’m coming with you?” Tony said. “My priority right now is finding Steph and getting a way back home for us. I’m not about to get involved in some fight that isn’t mine!”

“Well, guess what, buddy, it just became your fight,” Dugan responded. “The moment you blew up that tank is the moment you just became an enemy of HYDRA. Word in this world travels fast and pretty soon, top HYDRA leaders will know about you, including Schmidt. As for Steph, she is locked up in Schmidt’s mansion, has been locked up there for almost five years now, you wouldn’t be able to get her out of there even if you tried, and I have my orders so you are coming with us.”

“If you know anything about the Stark family, then you would know that we don’t take well to orders,” Tony said, crossing his arms and fixing Dugan with a challenging glare. “What makes you think I’ll go with you without a fight?”

“You’re going because I know even if you tried, you will not be able to survive on your own,” Dugan replied. “You may have a fancy suit with all the cool technology and gadgets that come with it, but I know like most technology, it needs to be looked after and maintained, and you can’t do that out here. The only places you can do that is either at our base or one of HYDRA’s bases, and those places are heavily guarded. You wouldn’t be able to take on a whole HYDRA base if you tried, even with the suit of armor you have.”

Tony hated to admit it, but the asshole in the bowler hat was right. Even if he didn’t follow them and went on his own, he probably wouldn’t survive. Granted, with the suit, he’ll probably survive a lot longer than most, but Dugan was right: like most technology, the Iron Man suit needed to be maintained and taken care of due to the constant battles he and the other Avengers went through, and he would often need to take it to his workshop right after a battle to fix it. Now, the suit had taken on some damage from his battle with Doctor Doom; any more damage could result in him being killed or worse or the suit just not being functional anymore. As much as he hated to, he would probably have to take orders from a high-strung, paranoid jarhead in order to survive.

“Fine, but you will not stop me from finding Steph and I will not hesitate to bounce once I do, you got that?” Tony said.

“We’ll see what the colonel will have to say about that,” Dugan responded. “Now, make yourself useful and help us pack, we don’t got a lot of time ‘til HYDRA begins looking for us and we need to be long gone by the time that happens.”

He then left the tent and shouted orders once he was out of the tent, yelling at people to get moving. Tony watched him leave, still irritated at being ordered around and gritting his teeth in anger. There was only one person who could order him around and, unfortunately, she was out somewhere in this parallel universe, but where exactly? He did not know.

“Is he always an asshole?” he asked the three soldiers, turning his attention to them and referring to Dugan.

“He was not always like this,” Jones said. “He’s just been through a lot, having fought this war for a long time.”

“ _ We all have… _ ” Dernier said sorrowfully.

“We have been fighting in this resistance for almost five years and if you count the war prior to that, then we have been fighting for longer than that,” Jimmy said, and that is when Tony could see the tired and sorrowful looks on their faces and could see it in their bodies as well. “Everyone has lost everything that we have known and loved when Steph lost to Schmidt back in ‘45, all of that can really change a person…”

And Tony began to feel sorry for the soldiers. He could relate to them in a way as he too had lost battles before, but to have fought a war for years against a powerful and nearly indestructible organization with no hope of it ending, that was something he could not relate to. He was still irritated by Dugan’s treatment towards him, but he supposed he could understand a little bit why he was like that; it did not mean, though, that he liked it or would tolerate it if Dugan kept it up.

“Come on,” Jimmy then said, taking Tony out of his thoughts, “we gotta help the others pack, maybe you can tell us about all your adventures with Steph in your universe on our way to the base?”

Tony only nodded in response as he willingly followed the soldiers out of the tent to help them pack to begin the long journey to this base. It was while they were packing that a strong gust of wind came by that it blew everything away, nearly knocking the trees off of their roots and tents flying away, and leaves, dirt, and pineneedles blew into everyone’s faces that they had to cover their faces in order to prevent anything from getting into their eyes. It was only until the wind settled down that everyone looked to where the wind came from only to be greeted by the sight of a large gray cloud in the distance. It made everyone realize that HYDRA had nuked the city and the civilians could only watch in horror as everything they have known and loved was destroyed; Dugan, however, was not going to give them time to process their shock and grief.

“Let’s get moving, people!”

As soon as Tony found Steph, he was going to run with her and find them a way back to their own universe and get them the hell out of this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it seems almost impossible for Schmidt to reverse the negative side effects but I wanted to do it for my story; plus, it's HYDRA! Their technology is pretty advanced and I can imagine Schmidt finding some way to reverse the negative effects of the first serum.
> 
> The next chapter will be coming up soon as I have been furloughed until May 31st, so I will have more time to write and I already have notes written for the fourth chapter, just need to tweak it a bit. In the fourth chapter, you should see what's going on with the team and there MAY be a scene in the POV of Schmidt.
> 
> Edit as of 04/22/2020: I have a question for some of my readers and I wanted to get some ideas from you. Since HYDRA now rules the world, what do you think the name of the governing body would be called? Republic of HYDRA or can you imagine it being called something different? Also, what laws do you think would be in place with HYDRA ruling the world? I really could use some ideas as I am kind of coming at a blank when it comes to this.
> 
> German translations:  
> meine liebchen: my love  
> Danke, Doktor: Thank you, doctor  
> meine Frau: my wife  
> mein lieber Ehemann: my dear husband (or at least that's how Google translater did it)  
> dummes Madchen: stupid girl  
> Ja, es tut mir Leid, Herr- Yes, I am sorry, sir  
> Trefflich: Terrific or excellent


	4. Trying To Find A Way Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of the Avengers try to figure out what happened to Tony and Steph. Meanwhile, Steph tries to figure out how to get out of the mansion and ends up telling her personal maid the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I ended up having to split the chapter once again; otherwise, the chapter would have been WAY too long, so I think from now on, I am just not going to give you guys an idea of what happens in my future chapters lol I end up either going a different route or something like that so no more teasers from now on.
> 
> Also, I have been thinking of changing the title to this, I find that the title just doesn't fit and also there is another person who wrote a story similar with the same title, and I rather have a title that is original to this story. I just don't know to what yet. Any input from you, my readers, would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> No flames, but constructive criticism is appreciated.

_Avengers Facility, 2020_

The Avengers, or what was left of them, were all at their facility in the living area, crowded around the round table. They were all watching the news on the holograph where the news was covering the story of what happened in New York and to the Avengers’ leader and co-leader, Steph and Tony.

“I’m standing in the middle of the scene in New York City where the Avengers just had their latest battle against a man who called himself Doctor Doom,” the news anchor was saying. “Death toll is in the hundreds with the number rising every hour by the hands of Doctor Doom. Thanks to the Avenger known as the Scarlet Witch, Doctor Doom was effectively destroyed and New York City is safe once again, but a video clip from a bystander caught a part of the battle with what looks as if the beloved leaders of the Avengers, Captain Stephanie Rogers and Tony Stark, Iron Man, have been killed. Here is a clip of said video…”

A clip of a video came up that looked like it was taken on a phone. The Avengers could hear the person who took the video breathing very heavily and muttering in disbelief as they recorded the battle, and the Avengers had to relive watching their leaders and friends disappearing from the face of the Earth. The clip ended and the news anchor was brought back on.

“No word yet from the Avengers on what has happened to their leaders, but many people are already assuming that the beloved Captain America and Iron Man are dead. If this is true, the question remains, who will now lead the Avengers?”

At this point, Rhodey decided to turn off the holograph and it was quiet between the remaining Avengers once he did, every one of them worried about their leaders and wondering what happened to them. The Avengers that were left were Rhodey, Wanda, Bruce, Thor, Barton, Sam, Scott, Hope, Valkyrie, Carol, and the youngest Avenger (although their leader Stephanie will often dispute his status on the basis of his age) Peter Parker. They were all around the table with them either sitting or standing around the round table and none of them said a word as they thought of what could have happened to their leader and co-leader.

“You don’t think Captain Rogers and Mr. Stark are dead, do you?” Peter asked them.

No one responded to his question as they all did not want to face what could have been the inevitable. They have faced so much loss in the past year and a half, they did not quite want to face that they could have lost two more people that they cared about. It was then that there was the sound of an alarm system going off, the one indicating someone was trying to get in, and the Avengers all became tense, worried they were going to have to fight another enemy. Bruce turned on the holograph again and an image of Fury standing in front of the main entrance of the facility came on and he was staring directly at the camera that was at the main entrance. The Avengers all breathed a sigh of relief, glad they didn’t have to fight another enemy. They didn’t need that, especially when they were already vulnerable as it is.

“Hey, what gives? I can’t get in,” Fury said.

“Sorry, Fury, but given the circumstances, we felt it was best to not let any outsiders in without any authorization from any of us, I’ll go ahead and let you in,” Bruce said. “We’re in the living area.”

He taped the passcode onto a tablet to let Fury in and he put the tablet down on the table as the holograph was shut off again, and they all waited for Fury to come. About five to ten minutes after that, they heard the sound of footsteps approaching and saw the familiar figure of Nick Fury in his long leather jacket and black eye-patch.

“Well, aren’t you guys a sight for sore eyes,” Fury said as he came into the living area. He walked to the round table where all the Avengers were gathered at and stood at one of the ends of the table, putting his hands on his hips. “ Now, do any of you want to explain to me what in the hell happened out there? And I want the full story, not the circus show that the media is putting out there right now. What happened to Stark and Rogers?”

It was quiet between Fury and the Avengers. Fury gave them all an impatient look, waiting for an answer, and it was Bruce who finally spoke up.

“We aren’t really sure what happened to them,” he began. “We were fighting Doctor Doom, things were looking pretty bleak, and that’s when Steph got up and threw her shield at his machine that was causing a rift in the universe, effectively destroying it.

“And then Doctor Doom blasted Captain Rogers down and I heard him say he was going to send her somewhere,” Valkyrie said. “Next thing we know, Stark gets up and flies towards her, gets caught in the crossfire, and both him and Rogers disappeared.”

“Send her somewhere?” Fury repeated. “Where did he say he was going to send her to?”

“We aren’t sure,” Wanda said. “I just remember Doctor Doom saying he was going to send her to a place that she feared most.”

“Was there anything else that he said to her?”

“Yeah, he said it was a world where Steph lost everything and everyone she loved,” Sam spoke up.

“And just what in the hell is that supposed to mean?” Fury asked.

Sam looked to the others and sighed, shaking his head and looking back at Fury.

“We aren’t sure.”

Fury did not like that answer, for his tone became more irritated.

“You guys just lost your two best fighters and your leaders, mind you, and none of you have any idea where they are or if they are even alive? I want answers or at least ideas on what the fucking hell happened to Stark and Rogers!”

“The only person who knows where Tony and Steph are at is now dead, thanks to Scarlet Witch here,” Rhodey said, pointing to Wanda.

“What did you expect me to do? To just sit back and let Doctor Doom continue to try and destroy the world?” Wanda snapped back at him. “He would have done just that if I hadn't.”

“If you hadn’t, we would be able to get answers on where Tony and Steph are right now.”

“Hey, don’t you go blaming her!” Barton snapped at Rhodey. “She was only doing what she thought was best!”

And that’s when the Avengers began arguing amongst each other. The only ones who weren’t arguing were Peter who was still upset at the thought of possibly losing his mentor and someone who he looked to as a father-figure, Fury, and Bruce. It wasn’t until Bruce put two fingers between his lips and whistled that everyone in the room became quiet and turned their attention to him.

“That’s enough!” he shouted. “We can’t go blaming each other over what happened, we lost our two leaders and they are who knows where, and the person who is the reason for their disappearance and who was bent on destroying the universe is now dead. The world is now safe because of his death. Our top priority right now, though, is finding out where Tony and Steph are and bringing them home if they are alive.”

“Dr. Banner is right, arguing and accusing each other is not going to get us anywhere,” Fury said. “We need to find out what happened to Stark and Rogers and if they’re alive. So, if anyone has any ideas on what happened to them, say something now.”

No one said anything for the first couple of minutes, not able to come up with any ideas. It wasn’t until Peter came up with an idea that he finally spoke up.

“Do any of you guys read or watch sci-fi or fantasy?”

Everyone in the room looked at Peter with confused expressions on their faces, wondering why he was asking that.

“And how does this question pertain to our situation?” Thor asked.

“I swear, kid, if this is another one of your pop culture references…” Rhodey began in an irritating tone.

“No, I swear, it isn’t!” Peter said. “In some sci-fi or fantasy books or shows or movies, the characters will sometimes go through a parallel universe, a reality that is different from theirs. Do you think it is possible that this world Doctor Doom spoke about is a parallel universe and that is where he sent Captain Rogers and Mr. Stark?”

“Kid, I think you have been watching too many TV shows, you outta lay off of them for awhile,” Fury said. “And why are you here? Shouldn’t you be in school right now?”

“I’m on winter break right now,” Peter replied. “Besides that, Doctor Doom was attacking my neighborhood and I was battling against him too, so I have every right to be here; plus, I am technically an Avenger.”

“Not officially…”

“Oh, come on, man, I’m already eighteen!”

“You may be of legal age, but according to the memo from Captain Rogers, you can’t officially join until you graduate high school.”

“Can we get back to the matter at hand, please?” Bruce interrupted them, shutting them up. Once he did that, he turned his attention back to Peter. “Peter, as much as I appreciate your input, I just don’t think what you are talking about is possible. It’s basically pseudo-science and it doesn’t exist or has yet to be proven.”

“ _Pochekay khvylynku (Wait a minute)…_ ”

It was Wanda who said this in her native language, and everyone looked to her and became concerned when they saw the look of revelation on her face.

“Wanda, are you okay?” Clint asked her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m fine, I think the _dytyna_ (kid) might be onto something…”

“Whatever do you mean?” Hope asked.

“Peter might be onto something about the parallel universe theory,” Wanda explained. “When I was working for HYDRA, I recall Strucker talk about other experiments, and one of those experiments was delving into multiverses.”

“Multiverses? As in alternative realities?” Thor asked, and Wanda nodded. “I’ve heard of these, Heimdall, our gatekeeper from Asgard, often spoke of them.”

“What was HYDRA’s goal with this experiment?” Scott asked.

“He was hoping to use it to bring their founder into our world,” Wanda replied.

At that, the whole team shivered at the thought of the founder of HYDRA, Johann Schmidt, being in this universe in the 21st century. None of them have met him, save for Clint who met him on Vormir, but they all have heard the stories from Steph about the kind of person he was before he was transported by the Tesseract. The only person who did not react was Peter who did not know who the founder of HYDRA was.

“Who’s the founder of HYDRA?” he asked.

“Someone you definitely do not want to meet or mess with,” Rhodey said. “Be thankful that you weren’t around the time he was. HYDRA was founded by a man named Johann Schmidt who was once a Nazi thug and Hitler’s right-hand man at one point, but he had bigger ambitions. He was the one who found the Tesseract back in 1942 and if Steph had not defeated him back in ‘45, he would have succeeded in wiping out almost half of the population the way Thanos did.”

Peter looked sick as he heard this, remembering the feeling of fading away when Thanos did the snap.

“I can safely assume that they weren’t able to successfully do this?” Sam asked Wanda.

Wanda shook her head no.

“It was just a theory that Strucker was working on, and, as Bruce said, it’s pseudo-science. So Strucker mainly focused on other ways to bring their founder here, like a time-machine, but they did not have the correct technology for that. However, Strucker and the other HYDRA scientists would often discuss these alternative realities, they believed that we coexisted with an alternative reality where HYDRA won the war and they wanted to create a rift in the universe in order to bring that reality into ours.”

“It is just not possible,” Bruce said in disbelief. “Parallel universes or alternative realities have not been scientifically proven that they exist.”

“And time machines are still considered unproven by the general scientific community, and yet you guys managed to do just that,” Fury responded.

Bruce did not say anything in response, for he realized that Fury made a point.

“I am beginning to think that it is possible that Doctor Doom _did_ send Tony and Steph to some alternative reality and they are stuck in said reality,” Rhodey said.

“The probability of that is rather high,” Clint said. “Not only did Doctor Doom say he was going to send Steph to a world that she feared most, but the guy was practically a master in the mystics.”

“Question is, which reality did he send them to?” Sam asked.

No one said anything, unsure the answer to that question or where to even start.

“Hey!” Peter suddenly said, appearing to have a revelation. “What about that other mystical guy?”

Everyone around him just gave him a confused look.

“Who are you talking about?” Carol asked. “What other mystical guy?”

“That other mystical guy,” Peter cried. “When Mr. Stark and I went on Titan to try and defeat Thanos the first time, there was a guy with the floating red cape who was also a master in the mystical arts. He was able to look at different realities with the time stone and he was able to find the one reality where we win. You know, that guy!”

“Do you mean that doctor with the strange last name?” Thor asked.

“You mean Doctor Strange?” Bruce asked.

“Yes, him!” Peter said. “He is a master in the mystic arts as well, maybe he can give us some insight where Doctor Doom sent Mr. Stark and Captain Rogers.”

It was quiet as the team thought about Peter’s idea, all of them unsure how they felt about it. Fury was the first to relent, deciding that this was better than nothing, even if he thought the idea was rather crazy. Maybe he just wanted to hold on to hope that Tony and Steph were still alive out there somewhere, but he rather hold onto it than not have any at all.

“Alright,” he said, surprising the whole team, “does anyone know where this Doctor Strange is?”

“I do,” Bruce said, raising his hand, “he lives in New York where one of the bases for the arcane school is.”

“Good, why don’t you take a trip back to New York and stop by this base to have a chat with Doctor Strange?” Fury said. “The kid is right, he could give us some insight on where to find Stark and Rogers if they were sent to a different universe. Take Thor with you.”

He then turns to Wanda.

“Do you think Strucker would have wrote any notes on his theories?”

“I’m very sure he did.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Fury said. “I’ll have an agent come over and drop off any files related to Strucker and his experiments and theories. In the meantime, you guys find whatever you can on alternative reality theories and protect the facility. Without Stark and Rogers, you guys are vulnerable right now, so look out for each other and SHIELD will do the same.”

He then points to Peter.

“And you, you are going home! You can hitch a ride with Bruce and Thor back to New York, but you are going straight home once you do.”

“Oh, come on, I gave you guys the alternative reality theory, I should at least go on the mission with Dr. Banner and Thor,” Peter said. “I could help!”

“The answer is no, no missions with the Avengers until after you graduate high school.”

“Can I at least stay here to watch Tasha? It’s been a while since I last saw her.”

Most of the Avengers rolled their eyes at Peter’s insistence to stay here, and it was Sam who took sympathy on him.

“Fury, come on, let the kid stay,” he said. “He can just help us watch Tasha; plus, he is on winter break after all, he doesn’t have any responsibilities right now.”

“Fine,” Fury replied with a roll of his eyes, making Peter pump his fist in the air in victory. “But that is all you are doing, do you understand?”

“Yes, Director Fury.”

Fury then looked around the room and thought of someone when he realized that said person was not in the room.

“Where’s Tasha?”

“She’s asleep,” Wanda replied. “She was distraught when Tony and Steph didn’t come back, I just managed to get her to sleep not too long before you came here.”

Fury gave a look of understanding, obviously sympathizing with Tasha.

“Alright, that’s good,” he said. “I’m gonna head back to SHIELD Headquarters. As soon as any of you get an answer on where Stark and Rogers could be, let me know!”

He then turned his attention to Peter.

“Call your aunt to let her know where you are at. And no inviting any of your friends unless they are authorized!”

Peter nodded, indicating that he understood, and that is when Fury finally left while Thor and Bruce went to get ready for their trip to New York. Fury hoped that the kid’s theory about alternative realities was true and that they were able to find Tony and Steph and bring them home.

* * *

_Outside of Berlin, 1949_

Steph is watched by Amalia with concern as the former paced back and forth in her room, trying to come up with a plan to get out of here. She had just gotten over the shock of seeing Schmidt as a human being instead of the Red Skull and as her husband, and she almost could not believe it. However, she knew that all of this was very real: his lips and his touch felt all too real and she saw the diamond ring on her ring finger not too long after Schmidt and Dr. Zola left.

Looking down at the ring, Steph had to admit that the ring was beautiful and she could tell that Schmidt had expensive tastes. The band was thick with diamonds all around it and there were two bands on each side that were elevated to hold the diamond in place. The diamond itself was large and it sparkled when Steph put it in a certain light. Even though Steph admitted that it was a beautiful ring, she already hated it. Not just because the ring symbolized a forced marriage, but because it was too fancy for her liking. She was never into the fancy jewelry, preferring the more simpler jewelry.

Tony knew this, and he used to take care in buying her jewelry. Of course, he would add his own little flair to it to make sure the jewelry would last, but he knew Steph did not care much for them so he did not buy them for her often. From what she saw in the jewelry box that was right by her vanity station, Schmidt liked to buy her _a lot_ of jewelry, and expensive ones at that.

She stopped pacing the room at some point and approached the windows that were barred-up. No balcony was in her room, so there was no chance of escaping, at least from here. That did not necessarily mean that there were other weaknesses in this mansion, she just needed to find them. Then she thought about Schmidt’s facility that he mentioned earlier and how Schmidt most likely had an office in there. Schmidt’s office most likely had to be in this mansion and had to have any information related to her, the resistance, or weapons HYDRA was building.

“Amalia, do you happen to know where Schmidt’s office is?” Steph asked her, turning her attention from the barred windows to her.

“His office? Why do you need to know?” Amalia asked in response.

“I need info of anything related to HYDRA, the rebellion, me, or the house and I plan on using that info to help me escape tonight,” Steph said as she walked towards the door.

“Escape?! Ma’am, you can’t be serious?”

“I am, I plan on leaving this hellhole as soon as I get the chance. I am not going to give Schmidt a chance to give me a refresher, as he said, I rather die than let him put his hands on me.”

She turned on her heel to leave, but she was stopped by Amalia who grabbed her by the wrist and spun her back around.

“Mistress, I’ve just had about enough of your cryptic answers, I demand you tell me what’s going on!” she cried and then she winced as she realized she raised her voice at Steph and bowed her head in shame. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I did not mean to raise my voice or demand something from you when it’s below my status to demand something from you, but your behavior is concerning me. You forgot almost five years of your life and then asked me to keep your amnesia a secret from everyone and now you’re talking about escaping! I have not heard you talk about escaping in the three years when I first started working here, so you talking about it is a first for me. Please tell me what’s going on, ma’am, or I-I-I’ll ruin your paintings!”

Steph found the maid’s lame threat rather amusing and she would have burst out laughing over it if not for the serious look on the young girl’s face and urgency in the girl’s tone. She sighed as she decided she was finally going to tell Amalia what was going on. Steph had her tell her what has happened in the past five years, now it was her turn, but first, she had to make sure that she can fully trust this girl with what she was about to tell her.

“Before I tell you what’s going on with me, I want to ask, how well do I trust you?” Steph asked.

Amalia seemed surprised by this question and was confused for a moment, but answered the question anyway.

“I would say that you and I are confidants. We are as close as a maid and her mistress can be, or at least that Kaiser Schmidt allows us to, but you are kind not only to me but to the rest of the staff as well. For that, I trust you and you trust me.”

Steph searched for face for any signs of deceit, as Natasha taught her to do, and when she saw none, she found herself satisfied with the girl’s answer. She turned to the open door before walking towards it and closed it, locking it once she did. She then turned back to Amalia and walked back towards her.

“What I am about to tell you cannot come out of this room, do you understand me?” she said in a low voice, low enough where an average human being couldn’t hear her from outside.

Amalia only nodded in response.

“You’re gonna want to sit down for this one…”

So, Steph told Amalia everything.

She started explaining how she was from an alternative reality from the year 2020 and that she defeated Schmidt on the Valkyrie back in 1945 and was frozen in ice for 70 years before being found and waking up in the year 2012. She talked very briefly how the Avengers came to be and how she fought against Loki, but left out how she fought against aliens as well. She mentioned how Tony was Howard Stark’s son and that he was her co-leader to the Avengers and also explained how is it that she got here in this reality per courtesy of Doctor Doom.

She decided to keep to herself, though, that her and Tony were once in a committed and complicated relationship (and it was still rather complicated, if she was being honest with herself), and the fact that the Tesseract was much more than a cube filled with unlimited energy or a “power left on Earth by the gods”, as Schmidt believed it to be. Schmidt more than likely did not know that about the Tesseract, and she was definitely not about to tell this young maid what she knew about it. She’d probably think that Steph was crazy if she did, almost as much if she mentioned the fact that she fought against aliens.

By the time Steph was done explaining everything, Amalia was looking at her with wide eyes and mouth wide open, giving her a look as if she could not believe what she was hearing from her mistress.

“This is just unbelievable,” Amalia finally said after a couple of minutes of not saying anything.

“You don’t believe me, do you?” Steph asked her, seeing the expression on her face.

“No! What you are speaking of, ma’am, is madness!”

“More mad than a mad scientist using a powered cube to wipe out 50% of the population?”

Amalia was quiet for a moment, not able to come up with a retort for the first couple of seconds.

“That-that’s different!” she finally stuttered out. “Kaiser Schmidt used science to do that. What you are speaking of, ma’am, is, well, it’s… _magic_ , it’s just not possible.”

“I’m telling the truth, Amalia,” Steph said. “There are things that I’ve seen and done that you would not believe, and it is up to you to believe it or not, but I would not make up something up like this. How else does it explain me forgetting almost 5 years of my life?”

“Amnesia could explain it…”

“Really? Do you really think someone with amnesia will create an intricate story like I did just now?”

Amalia was quiet once more, and Steph realized she made a point when Amalia did not have a retort for that.

“I-I-I just don’t think it’s possible,” she finally said.

“What will it take for you to believe me?” Steph asked her.

“If maybe the Stephanie of this world you speak of has something that the one in this world doesn’t, I may be more inclined to believe, ma’am, but I highly doubt it,” Amalia responded. “I really think you should talk to a doctor about this…”

And that’s when something clicked in Steph’s head when Amalia said that. _Something that she had that the Steph of this world didn’t._ She looked down at her right forearm and, to her relief, saw that it was still there: the tattoo that she got sometime after her and her team defeated Ultron. It was the only tattoo she had, and it was a tattoo of the Avengers symbol with the words “The Battles They Never Could” underneath it. Steph was not one to get a tattoo usually, but she decided this was an exception as the Avengers’ symbol represented the group who she considered like family and the words underneath represented her dedication as a defender of Earth.

Schmidt and Dr. Zola more than likely didn’t notice the tattoo; otherwise, they would have questioned her about it. This could be actual proof that Steph was telling the truth to Amalia. She was pretty sure that the Stephanie Rogers in this universe would not get a tattoo of a symbol of a team of superheroes that have yet to be, if they’ll even come to be in this universe.

“Amalia, would Schmidt ever allow me to get a tattoo?” Steph asked.

Amalia was confused by Steph’s question, wondering why the suddenness and randomness of the question. She could see her mistress looking at her forearm, and she could not see what she was looking at, for the front of her forearm was not in Amalia’s eyesight.

“Uh, no, ma’am, Kaiser Schmidt would never allow it,” she finally answered. “He finds them distasteful and that only low-lifes and street thugs would have them. Why do you ask, ma’am?”

“Because of this,” Steph replied as she showed Amalia the tattoo.

When Amalia saw the tattoo, her eyes went wide in shock before it turned to horror.

“That…that was not there this morning…”

“Do you believe me now?”

Amalia does not respond right away, though, for she was too speechless to even say anything. She had a hand over her mouth and shook her head in disbelief, backing away from Steph before finally hitting the edge of Steph’s bed, and sitting down on it without even thinking.

“ _Oh mein Gott_ , he’s going to kill me…” Amalia muttered under breath, and Steph knew that she was referring to Schmidt. “Is it fake? It has to be fake!”

Steph did not get the chance to respond to that, for Amalia suddenly got up from the bed and ran to the bathroom. She came back out not long after that with a damp washcloth in her hand and grabbed Steph’s wrist.

“I’ve got to get this off before Kaiser Schmidt sees it,” she said as she rubbed the damp washcloth over Steph’s tattoo.

Steph watched Amalia try to wipe the tattoo off in vain, and the maid became more frantic when she saw the tattoo would not come off.

“It’s not coming off. Why is it not coming off?”

She continued to wipe Steph’s forearm with the damp washcloth with more vigour, but to no avail. Steph watched her do this for a couple more seconds until she finally stopped her.

“Amalia, stop,” she said as she put a hand over Amalia’s, stopping her from wiping her forearm and making her look at her. “You’re not gonna get it off, the tattoo is not fake, it’s real.”

And that’s when Amalia backed away from her with her eyes and mouth wide open as she realized that her mistress was telling the truth and she almost couldn’t believe it. At first, she thought her mistress had gone mad. After years of being tortured and raped by Kaiser Schmidt, Amalia thought Stephanie had finally cracked, but hearing her tell the story of leading a team of superheroes called the Avengers and seeing the tattoo on her forearm, Amalia realized that Stephanie was telling the truth, and she really almost couldn’t believe it. The evidence was there, though, and Amalia was with Steph almost the entire time today and did not see that tattoo there before, so she knew Stephanie was telling the truth. But with that realization and the thought of what Schmidt will do to her if he ever saw that tattoo made her _very_ scared.

“ _Oh mein Gott_ , Kaiser Schmidt is going to kill me once he sees that,” Amalia said as she began pacing back and forth. “He’s going to think that I let you get it. Not to mention what he is going to do to _you_ , ma’am, once he does.”

“Hey,” Steph said in a gentle tone as she stopped Amalia from pacing by putting a hand on her shoulder, “Schmidt is not going to do anything bad to you nor will he find out, I will make sure of that. Is there any cover-up that I have?”

Amalia seemed to understand why Steph asked that, for she nodded and went over to Steph’s vanity station. She came back with a bottle of liquid foundation and brush, and she started to apply the foundation on Steph’s forearm, rubbing the foundation in with the brush to try and cover up the tattoo. Amalia had applied a lot of foundation on Steph’s forearm, and they managed to cover up most of the tattoo, but even with that amount of foundation, it was still noticeable. It looked as if Steph had taken a marker and drew on her arm with the foundation over her tattoo.

“Scheiẞe, it’s still noticeable,” Amalia muttered under her breath. “What are we going to do now?”

Steph thought about it for a moment before an idea finally came to her.

“Do I have any long-sleeved cardigans in my wardrobe?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Go grab one for me then.”

Amalia nodded and she went over to a double door that was on the right side of Steph’s bed. After she opened it, Steph could see that it was a closet, a rather large one, and Amalia went inside of it, rummaging around it before she came back out with a long-sleeved red cardigan with pockets on them.

“Here, this should cover-up the tattoo,” Amalia said as she handed over the cardigan to Steph. The latter did not take the cardigan at first as the color of it reminded her of Schmidt as the Red Skull.

“Is there any other colors other than red?” she asked, looking at the red cardigan with disgust.

“No, ma’am,” Amalia said with a shake of her head, “the other colored cardigans are too short for the tattoo to be covered; plus, red is Kaiser Schmidt’s favorite color and he likes it when you wear his favorite color.”

‘ _Of course he does_ ,’ Steph thought with a roll of her eyes. She took the cardigan from Amalia anyway and put it on.

“You really are from an alternative reality from the year 2020,” Amalia said as Steph put the cardigan on.

Steph could tell that the young maid believed her for she heard in the tone of her voice that it was more of a statement than a question. She could see the look on Amalia’s face that she believed her, and she was quite glad that she did and that her first instinct about the young maid was right. Instead of verbally replying to Amalia, though, Steph just nodded in response, and Amalia looked suddenly frightened.

“He’s going to find out…” she said in a quiet tone.

Steph did not need to ask who she was referring to.

“No, he won’t.”

“He will,” Amalia insisted. “Every secret that you have tried to keep from him, ma’am, he will eventually find out. It is like he knows everything about you and knows when you are lying to him.”

“He doesn’t know everything about me,” Steph replied. “I’ve developed certain skills over the years that he does not know about and I could use that to my advantage.”

“How so?”

“I’ve learned a thing or two from…an old friend.”

The familiar feeling of sorrow came up at the brief mention of Natasha, but she put the feeling aside for now to focus on the matter at hand.

“Does Schmidt have an office in this place?”

“An office in the mansion? No, he has a study room, but he never keeps anything important in there, only books of his interest,” Amalia said. “He has a conference room within the study room where he has his war meetings with his generals, but that room is soundproof.”

“Where is his office, then?”

“It is within his facility, which is outside of the mansion in the backyard. You aren’t thinking of going into his facility, are you, ma’am? Kaiser Schmidt forbids you from going in there!”

“It is the only way for me to gather some intel and get out of here.”

“But, ma’am, even if you tried to, you wouldn’t be able to get into his facility!” Amalia cried, taking care to still speak in a low tone so no one outside of the room heard her. “That place is heavily guarded, and Schmidt has a system set up where an alarm will go off if someone tries breaking in the facility. Only people who are authorized to be in there have an access code and that’s the only way into his facility. If someone tries going into the facility any other way, it will set off the alarm. If Schmidt catches you trying to break into his facility, he will have Dr. Zemo visit and put you on the… _machine_.”

Amalia said this last part so low and so full of fear that it made Steph stop in her tracks. Whatever this machine Amalia was talking about was enough to make her fearful for Steph’s life and looking into her eyes and seeing her visibly shiver when she said the word ‘machine’, Steph could tell that she has been the victim of this said machine. ‘ _No doubt she suffered on account of my actions in this universe or she committed some slight that Schmidt found offensive_ ,’ Steph thought. She wouldn’t really put it past Schmidt to do something like that, and she did not want to put anyone’s life in danger. However, that did not necessarily mean she was going to give up, she was just going to find another way into the facility and be _very, very_ careful about it.

“Alright, fine, I’ll just have to find another way into the facility,” Steph finally said, relenting.

“Ma’am, you can’t be seriously still thinking about breaking into Kaiser Schmidt’s facility?” Amalia asked her in an exasperated tone. “He’ll find out!”

“No, he won’t, and if he does, I’ll make sure it is only me that gets hurt.”

“I don’t think you understand—”

“Amalia, I have to do this!” Steph cried out, cutting Amalia off. “Tony is out there somewhere and I got people who are counting on both me and him to protect them, and we can’t do that if we both are stuck here. I know you are scared, but I _have_ to do this, I have to get out of here so that Tony and I can get back to our own universe. I promise I’ll do my best to make sure you don’t get hurt, but you have to let me do this, okay?”

It was quiet for a few moments between the two women with Amalia looking at Steph both in admiration and confliction. It wasn’t until a minute or so after that Amalia finally relented.

“Okay, I understand, ma’am.”

Steph felt herself breathe a sigh of relief once she did, glad that she didn’t have to argue any further with the maid. No one was stopping her from leaving this place and finding a way back home for both her and Tony, even if they tried. Now, the question is, where was Tony in this universe? She decided she was going to worry about that part later once she managed to escape this place.

“Now, I want you to go about your duties that you do on a daily basis around this time, act as you normally do, and don’t give Schmidt any indication that something is off. Can you do that?” Steph asked.

“I believe I can,” Amalia responded.

“Alright, good, I am going to go outside and scout the area for Schmidt’s facility,” Steph said as she began to walk towards the door.

“Ma’am, it’s 5 o’clock, which means dinner will start in an hour,” Amalia said. “I have to go help the other staff prepare for that, but if you want Kaiser Schmidt to suspect you less, it would be best for you to join him and Dr. Zola for dinner.”

As much as Steph did not want to eat at a table with Schmidt, what Amalia said made sense. Schmidt more than likely already suspected something was off, if her behavior and words earlier were anything to go by. She had to do something in order to make him less suspicious, even if she didn’t want to do it.

“Very well,” she said. “If I am not back inside 10 minutes before dinner, come find me outside.”

“Yes, ma’am. And ma’am, be careful.”

Steph only nodded in response before she headed towards the door, opening it and exiting her room to go outside. No matter what it takes, even if it takes her days, she was going to break into Schmidt’s facility and find a way out of this place before Schmidt can even put his hands on her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of that chapter, hope you enjoyed it and that it wasn't too bad. I admit, the way Steph told Amalia the truth and how she too readily believed her was not entirely accurate, but I hope to make that up in later chapters where she is still kind of in disbelief until she actually REALLY believes Steph. I could not find a better way to do it that would not take up too much time and pages on Google Docs.
> 
> Since it is the year 2020 during this story, I know Peter is most likely out of high school by then, but I figured due to the Snap, he would have had to restart junior year, so he is still a senior in high school in this. The language that Wanda spoke is actually Ukrainian because, apparently, that is the language that closely resembles Sokovian and Sokovia is a fictional country. Most, if not all, of my translations will come from Google Translator so if I mess up on another language's grammar and you speak that language, I apologize in advance!
> 
> Oh mein Gott-Oh my god (although I am fairly certain I did not need to translate that for you guys, that phrase is pretty self-explanatory)
> 
> Chapter 5 coming up next within like a couple of hours ^^


	5. Dinner In A Place Not Of Their Own

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony feels guilty of being responsible for people losing their lives and Jimmy cheers him up. Steph has a vision of some sort and has dinner with Schmidt and Zola only for it to be interrupted. Schmidt is beginning to suspect something is off with his wife.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is something I have been meaning to do and I apologize for not doing this any sooner, but to those who gave my story kudos, thank you so much! I really appreciate it <3
> 
> From this chapter and later chapters, I will now be including the translations within the story instead of putting them at the end of the story in the notes. I feel like it might be a little easier on both me as the writer and you as the readers.

_In the woods of Russia_

The sky was beginning to get dark as the sun was setting and the resistant soldiers along with the civilians continued walking west deep into the forest, and they all took care to stay away from any roads and clearings. They have been walking for hours, and Tony could feel himself getting exhausted. Between fighting against Doctor Doom to being zapped here and having to fight HYDRA to now having to walk for hours, Tony just felt like dropping face-down into the ground. He was _that_ exhausted! He kept on moving, though, as Dugan threatened to leave him behind if he couldn’t keep up with them, much to the annoyance of Tony. Jimmy, however, took sympathy on Tony and helped him stay awake by talking to him, asking him about the future, about Steph, about how he came to be known as the superhero Iron Man. Normally, Tony hated to be asked a whole bunch of questions when he was exhausted, it made him irritable and quick to anger, but given the circumstances, he was glad Jimmy did that. It helped him stay awake.

There were other ways that helped him stay awake too, such as playing with little Anya and Dmitry. Since they were all walking, though, they had to play games that allowed them to move with Tony carrying Anya on his back because of her sprained ankle. Playing with them made him miss someone from his universe, though, and then he felt fear for that person’s safety, wondering if Doctor Doom was still wreaking havoc in his universe and if the rest of the team managed to bring him down. He could only hope that everyone he knew and loved back in his own universe was safe.

Eventually, he tired both Dmitry and Anya out and they all stopped playing and just continued walking with the rest of the group. Their mother was carrying Dmitry on her back while Tony was holding Anya in his arms, and both children were fast asleep, and the exhaustion came back in full force for Tony. He was really hoping that they will make camp soon, he did not know how much longer he was going to be able to walk as he felt his eyes drooping and he nearly missed a step or two, nearly waking up Anya when he did. They had to stop sometime, Dugan could not seriously expect everyone to just keep on walking for hours and hours on end. Even the citizens and soldiers were beginning to show some signs of fatigue.

It was sometime just as the sun was going down that Dugan who was in the front suddenly raised his hand, signaling everyone to stop and get down. Everyone did as they were told, getting low to the ground with some hiding behind trees. Tony began to worry if they were hiding from HYDRA, and the thought of that just made him more tired than he already was. He did not want to fight off against more HYDRA soldiers as he did not think his body could handle anymore strain on it, but he’ll fight if he has to. He woke up Anya as he gently shook her awake and set her down on the ground.

“ _Mr. Iron Man, what’s going on?_ ” Anya asked Tony in her native language as she stirred. She tensed when she saw that everyone had stopped and were hiding, and she turned her attention back to Tony before lowering her voice. “ _Is it HYDRA?_ ”

“ _I’m not sure_ ,” Tony replied to her in Russian.

He wished he could reassure the little girl as he could hear the fear in her tone, but he was not sure what was going on, so he couldn't. He turned to Jimmy who was crouched behind a tree right next to him and made a quiet noise to get his attention.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

Jimmy only indicated for Tony to be quiet in response, and this only made Tony worry even more. He looked back towards the front where he saw a soldier run ahead and disappear over a hill. Everyone waited in tense anticipation with Tony wondering what was going to happen and with every minute that the soldier was gone made Tony just more nervous that he felt he was on the verge of a panic attack.

It was then that the sound of someone whistling pierced through the air, and all the soldiers got up, relaxing. Tony and the civilians took this as a cue that it was okay to get up and that it was safe, and everyone continued moving forward.

“What just happened?” Tony asked Jimmy after he got up from the ground.

“We have an encampment not too far from here, they were sending a scout up ahead to make sure the encampment was still safe to approach,” Jimmy replied. He chuckled when he saw the look of relief on Tony’s face and patted him on the shoulder through the suit. “Come on, you look like you are about to keel over, and I don’t think the Colonel would like that.”

“That is an understatement,” Tony muttered under his breath as he followed the crowd to the encampment.

They walked for a couple more miles or so before the group finally came across another encampment within the forest. Unlike the one outside of the city, though, this one was much smaller. Only three tents were in the encampment with one of them obviously being the infirmary, and a couple of fires around the encampment where soldiers were all huddled around them with some of them eating out of a bowel that did not look appetizing in the least. There was some light around the encampment, but the only light that could be seen were the fireplaces and some dim-lighted lamps within the tents. With it getting darker now, there was not going to be much lightning within the encampment.

Radios could be heard going off and Tony could hear the distinct sound of Russian, English, German, and maybe some Sokovian on the other end. At least he thought it was Sokovian, the dialect of it sounded similar, but he was not as familiar with it as Wanda is. As soon as the encampment saw the group approaching, soldiers in tattered Red Cross uniforms approached them and brought all the wounded soldiers and civilians to the infirmary tent. Another soldier who walked with a certain amount of confidence that only a soldier with a high-rank could have then approached Dugan.

Tony was thinking that this was their colonel who ordered that Tony be brought to him as Dugan and the soldier saluted each other only to find out it wasn’t when they addressed each other by their ranks.

“Major,” Dugan said to the soldier.

“Sergeant,” the soldier replied. “Do you mind explaining to me what in the hell happened out there? HYDRA’s gotten so worked up over some guy in an iron suit and nuked all of Kiev because of him. I now hear that he is within our ranks. Where is this Iron Man, as everyone keeps calling him?”

Tony then appeared right next to Dugan with Anya still in his arms and that’s when the major noticed him. The major’s eyes went wide when he noticed Tony, looking at him up and down in his suit. The arc reactor was still glowing on his chest and he was carrying his mask in his other hand.

“I believe I am the man that everyone is calling Iron Man,” Tony said to the major.

“You’re the reason why HYDRA is all freaked out right now?” the major asked.

Tony nodded and the major looked at Tony up and down once more.

“I can see why…”

“Major, is everything right on schedule?” Dugan asked, interrupting them.

“Everything is so far right on schedule,” the major replied. “A Polish rebels division will be coming to meet us on the edge of their border northwest from here. From there, they will take the civilians to safety and then we’ll be meeting Stark by a jet in a clearing not too far from there.”

At hearing his last name, Tony’s interest was piqued, but he knew that the major was not speaking about him. That could only mean one thing…

“Stark? Do you mean Stark as in…?”

“Yes, we mean Stark as in Howard Stark,” Dugan replied. “You’re gonna meet your relative tomorrow.”

“Relative?” the major repeated as he looked between Dugan and Tony before landing his eyes on Tony. “You’re related to Howard Stark?”

“Basically.”

The major studied Tony’s face for a moment or two before finally saying something.

“I can definitely see the resemblance, you look like you could be his older brother. Hope you are as good of an inventor as Stark, we could use all the help we can get.”

“If he will even be of use,” Dugan responded.

Tony glared at him, feeling himself get a little irked by Dugan’s attitude.

“Oh, yeah, sure, I’ll be of no use to you since I did just save you and your men’s asses from being obliterated from the universe,” he replied.

“Yeah, but at a cost.”

And that is when Tony had enough. He was not going to take Dugan’s shit lying down, he was Tony fucking Stark for Christ’s sake! He did not want to do it with Anya in his arms, though, so he handed her back to her mother who was standing right next to him, telling her to give him a moment as he needed to speak to the soldiers in private. The mother only nodded in understanding before taking her children away from them to the infirmary tent where a doctor immediately started tending to Anya’s sprained ankle. Once the mother and her children were far enough, Tony turned back to Dugan, stealing his gaze at him.

“What in the fucking hell is your problem, bro?” he nearly shouted at him. “I helped you and your men get out of the city alive and I saved that little girl and her brother in the process, I would think that you would at least be grateful for that! So what in the hell is your beef with me?”

“My beef with you, _bro_ , is that because of your little stunt back in the city, more lives were lost than were saved!” Dugan yelled back.

“What are you talking about? You have at least thirty survivors with you, and your buddy and that little girl would have died had I not blown up that tank when I did!”

“You think these thirty people were the only survivors or that we were the only division in the city trying to get people out of the city safely?” Dugan shouted.

Tony became quiet as he just thought of that just now when Dugan said that. He did not think there were other rebel divisions in the city and was only thinking of a way to get him and the others in the group out of there alive so he could find Stephanie and get them back to their universe somehow. Dugan noticed Tony’s expression, for he continued.

“Yeah, I thought as much. Newsflash, buddy: we weren’t the only division in the city. Our mission was to go in there and rescue as many people as we could and then you showed up and fucked everything up!”

“That is enough, Sergeant, stand down!” the major spoke up.

Dugan shut his mouth after that, but he looked like he wanted to say something as his face was turning red from the little light that was seen and his lips were thinning. He then screamed in frustration before turning and kicking the dirt, walking away from the encampment. Everyone watched Dugan walk away with concern, especially Jimmy, but no one went after him.

“You must forgive Sergeant Dugan,” the major said to Tony once Dugan was out of sight. “We all have just been through a lot during this war. Having to fight a war with almost no hope of it ending can really take a toll on a man. Don’t take it personally, he’s just angry and frustrated like we all are.”

Tony could understand that, he really did. Being Iron Man for twelve years and an Avenger for eight, it has definitely taken a toll on his body and mind. In this universe, though, it was a different situation than what he has been through. Even though he and his team have lost battles before, they always managed to get back up and defeat the bad guys in the end. The situation was different in this universe because in here, this small group of rebel soldiers were battling a losing battle against a mad scientist and his cult, and both are considered to be very powerful, more powerful than they ever were in Tony’s own universe.

Tony thought over Dugan’s words and he began to feel responsible for those whose lives were lost before they could even make it out of the city. The familiar feeling of guilt that came with the burden of being a superhero came back, and he also felt as if he causes more damage than prevents it, as he is prone to do. He suddenly could hear the familiar voice of Stephanie yelling at him, telling him how irresponsible and reckless he is, and he now just wanted to be alone, so he turned to leave and be alone with his thoughts.

It was a couple of hours later and the sun had gone down a long time ago, so it was completely dark. The only light that could be seen was from the lamps and the campfires around the encampment. Tony was sitting on the outskirts of the encampment against a tree with his suit off that only the bright light of the arc reactor was showing. Dmitry would sometimes come over, carrying his little sister with him, but their mother could sense Tony’s depressed mood and would drag her children away every time they did. Tony was grateful that she did because right now, he just wanted to be alone with his thoughts. It seemed as if he was not granted to have any alone time, though, for Jimmy came over with a bowel in his hand of whatever was being served for dinner that night.

“I brought over some food. Figured you might be hungry from all the fighting and walking today.”

Tony was initially going to refuse, but his stomach growled, indicating he was more hungry than he thought. So, he took the bowel from Jimmy and thanked him. That’s when Jimmy sat down in front of him, being quiet for a few moments as he watched Tony blow on his food before taking the first sip. The food that was being served looked like some type of animal broth and Tony made a face when he took the first sip of it, making Jimmy almost laugh.

“Sorry,” he said, “it wasn’t exactly made by a chef.”

“‘S alright, I suppose,” Tony replied. “It’s better than nothing or starving or even being captured and tortured by HYDRA.”

“You got that right.”

There was a moment of silence between them as Tony sipped on the broth, rather slowly as it wasn’t that great. Jimmy watched him as he did, and it got a little awkward for Tony seeing Jimmy watching him eat until he finally opened his mouth to speak once more.

“I know that you are blaming yourself for all the lives that were lost back in Kiev after you blew up the tank, but it wasn’t your fault. You did what you thought was best, and you got us out of there alive.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better? Because it doesn’t,” Tony responded. “Doug or whatever that asshole’s name is is right, I am responsible for the people who lost their lives back there.”

“You could not have foreseen HYDRA setting off an atomic bomb on Kiev because of you…”

“I should have, though, I should have thought about it, but I didn’t.”

“We all make mistakes.”

“I am a superhero, I _can’t_ make mistakes! People rely on me to protect them and when I can’t do that, then that tells me I have failed in my job as Iron Man and an Avenger.”

Tony put a hand over his eyes, trying to prevent Jimmy from seeing the tears prickling in his eyes. The guilt started to overwhelm him, and the memories of the Battle of Earth flashed through his mind, thinking of the one person who he looked to as family that he couldn’t save. ‘ _It was supposed to be me_ ,’ he thought. It took all his willpower to not cry as he thought about Pepper, and he took his hand away from his face once the urge had passed.

Jimmy had a feeling that Tony was not talking about what happened in Kiev. He could see that whatever was bothering Tony was taking an emotional toll on him, but Jimmy was not going to ask him for any info, he rather Tony be the first to divulge it first.

“Even superheroes make mistakes, it’s what makes them human,” Jimmy finally said. “Steph has definitely made plenty of them, but she tried to not let it get to her too much. I remember how she used to get upset when she wasn’t able to save everyone until she realized that she couldn’t save everyone.”

He then pointed over back to the encampment.

“The mother of those two children you saved back in Kiev, she could not stop talking about how thankful she was at you saving their lives. Apparently, when HYDRA first attacked the city, her husband got killed and then she and her children got separated while they were trying to escape the city, she thought she lost her whole family. If it had not been for you, those two kids would not be alive right now.”

Tony looked over to where Jimmy had pointed to and could see the Russian woman and her children all close to each other around a campfire. He smiled at the sight of them cuddling each other with the mother having a grateful look on her face as she ran her fingers through Anya’s hair. Anya who was sleeping had her head resting on her mother’s lap while Dmitry was sleeping on his mother’s right shoulder. The mother saw Tony looking their way, and Tony could see the smile of gratitude she sent him, even with the little light surrounding the encampment.

“See, you made a difference, even if it was just a small one,” Jimmy spoke up.

“I suppose I did,” Tony said with a smile, feeling a little better.

“You know, you remind me of Steph,” Jimmy suddenly said.

“Yeah, how so?”

“When I shot that HYDRA soldier and you said the word “language”, basically reprimanding me for my foul language, you reminded me of her,” Jimmy said. “Steph used to always reprimand us whenever we used foul language. That and the fact you are a superhero, except you’re enhanced by the suit and not the super soldier serum.”

Tony nearly laughed at that, recalling with certain fondness all the times he and the others got reprimanded by Steph for cursing and how he often used that against her whenever _she_ cursed when they were together in between the sheets. Trying to keep his thoughts clean for the moment, he decided to ask Jimmy what he has been meaning to ask him and the others a while back, but never got the chance to.

“So, how exactly do you and the others know Steph? You guys talk about her as if you _knew_ her…”

“It is because we do or did, really, know her pretty well,” Jimmy replied. “The others and I were part of her unit during World War II before she was defeated in ‘45…. What?”

He asked this last part when he saw Tony giving him a wide-eyed look.

Tony’s head was reeling and he became shocked as he realized just who he was talking to. He berated himself for not realizing it sooner, even though he was a self-proclaimed genius: the rather diverse unit, the reason why they looked so familiar, and why their names rang a bell. He was standing in the presence of a Howling Commando!

“Wait, you’re Jimmy Morita, _the_ Jimmy Morita, one of the Howling Commandos?” he asked in a shocked tone.

“Ah, so you’ve heard of us, then,” Jimmy responded. “Yes, I’m _the_ Jimmy Morita, and I’m one of the Howling Commandos as well as Dugan, Dernier, and Jones.”

“Heard of you? I know almost everything about you guys!” Tony nearly shouted, surprising Jimmy. “My father used to tell me about all of your battles and exploits with Steph during WWII, and I used to pretend I was a Howling Commando fighting against HYDRA whenever I played soldier…”

Tony stopped in the middle of his sentence when he realized that he was fanboying, and he turned red in embarrassment when he saw Jimmy giving him an amused look. He then cleared his throat and spoke in a more cool tone.

“I mean, the Howling Commandos were pretty cool…”

“I bet since you used to play soldier and pretended to be a Howling Commando when you were a kid,” Jimmy said, making Tony turn even redder.

He hoped that Jimmy wouldn’t tell the others about him fanboying, he had a reputation to protect. He suddenly realized that Jimmy only mentioned himself and the four others, and he knew that there were at least six surviving Howling Commandos after the war. He was not counting Bucky because they believed him to be dead.

“What about Falsworth?”

A look of sorrow crossed Jimmy’s features when Tony asked that, and he already knew what that meant.

“He didn’t make it, did he?”

Jimmy responded with a shake of his head.

“When Schmidt won the war, we all believed Steph to be dead, as he led the world to believe. It wasn’t until he brought his new wife into the public and we saw how similar she was to Stephanie Rogers that we knew she was alive and was being held as a war trophy to Schmidt. We attempted a rescue mission almost four years ago, but as you can see, we did not succeed in it. We lost Falsworth and some good soldiers along the way.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Tony said once Jimmy was done explaining.

Jimmy just shrugged.

“Falsworth died trying to get Steph out of a horrible situation, any of us would have done the same.”

Tony could see the look on Jimmy’s face, though, and could tell that Falswroth’s death affected him more than he let on. Tony could really relate to that as he thought about his own losses within the past year.

“Damn, it’s really cold over here,” Jimmy said as a cold breeze came through. “Why don’t you come over and hang with us by the fire where it’s warmer?”

Tony looked over to the fireplace where he could see Jones and Dernier sitting at. Dugan was nowhere in sight and it seemed as if he still had not come back after walking away hours ago.

“The others wouldn’t mind, would they?”

“Nah, they won’t mind.”

Tony thought about it before finally nodding and saying, “Alright, sure, just help me up.”

After Jimmy helped Tony up, they both walked over to Dernier and Jones with Tony joining them around the fire. He was eventually given a jacket of a deceased civilian and a blanket as he was only wearing jeans and his ACDC T-shirt with a long-sleeved white shirt underneath. He finished up his dinner as he listened to the three Howling Commandos talk to each other before he finally let exhaustion overcome him and fell asleep on the log right by the campfire.

* * *

_Schmidt’s Mansion_

Steph thinks she may have underestimated how big the mansion was. She knew it was big as she saw the mansion from out front, but seeing it from out in the backyard, she could see how huge it really was. It looked even bigger than Tony’s own mansion back in New York, and how there must have been at least over 100 rooms in the mansion by the looks of it. There must be a room for just about anything in there.

Steph went down the spiral staircase and then she turned to her right down a long hallway where she could see double doors. It looked as if the double doors led to the backyard as she could see light and a garden from inside, and she went out of these doors. The sun was low, so looking around the mansion, the little light from outside made it look dark and eerie when she looked towards the mansion. Looking out towards the backyard, Steph saw a set of stairs that led to the ground level and there was a pathway with a fountain in the middle of it. Going around the fountain, Steph could see that the pathway led to a long terrace that covered the entire pathway in either direction, and the pathway was covered completely in brick on the edges of the pathway and granite in the middle of it.

Right next to the terrace on the northside of the background was a maze, and she could see openings to the maze up and down the path of the long terrace. The maze was the only place that did not have granite on the ground, only grass, bushes, and plants that were well cared for and tended to; and the tall bushes that made the maze was trimmed to perfection.

A gardener must tend to the backyard as Steph knew Schmidt was not much of a gardener or a landscaper, and neither was she. She did not have much of any gardening skills, at least not at the level she was seeing here.

Steph walked through the maze on the eastside, keeping note of where she was turning so she could remember how to get back. Eventually, she comes to an end of the maze and goes through the opening only to be faced with a wall about ten feet or so away from her. In front of the mansion, it was gated, but here in the backyard, it was nothing but a barren wall that was tall and long. There were no vines or any kind of plants or vegetation growing on the wall, and Steph knew it was in order to make sure she did not try to escape. Not that she could if she wanted to, anyway, the weapons that she saw on the pillars out in the front were back here as well, and they moved along with her as she walked along the wall.

 _That should definitely deter someone from trying to escape or break into the mansion_ , Steph thought. She found it rather creepy how they followed her as she walked along the wall before deciding to move away from the wall.

She walked back the way she came, going back to the pathway and heading to the westside of the background. At the end of the pathway, she came across a clearing and then noticed a building in the right-hand corner. Looking at the building more closely, Steph could tell it was not a greenhouse building, for the building was made entirely out of stone, a steel door with what looked like it was locked with an access code. The building was wide and it was tall, but it was only half as tall as the wall. With the way the building was structured and how many guards were surrounding the building, Steph concluded that this was Schmidt’s small facility. She came to this conclusion even more when she saw the steel door open and Schmidt and Dr. Zola came out from behind the steel door.

She could see them talking to each other and they have yet to see her as they were, and she realized they were heading her way. As soon as she realized this, she turned back the way she came, running a couple feet down as best as she could in her heels. ‘ _I don’t know how Peggy or Natasha were able to run in these damn things_ ,’ Steph thought as she ran down the pathway, ‘ _these things are_ **_uncomfortable_ ** _to run in!_ ’

She then saw an opening to her left where she could hide and she turned in there, hiding behind the tall shrubbery from the maze, and Schmidt and Zola came onto the pathway just as she did. With Steph’s enhanced hearing, she could hear them talking in German as they walked down the path. It made her thankful that she decided to learn how to speak German from SHIELD, it definitely helped in her missions against HYDRA back in the 21st century in her universe.

“…and with our new satellite and our new war machine in development, we should be able to wipe out the entire resistance or anyone who poses a threat to HYDRA and it’s cause in only a matter of seconds,” she heard Dr. Zola say.

“How soon do you think the war machine will be ready?”

“With the rate we are going at, I would say that it will be ready not too long after the annual ball.”

“Good. Soon, the SSR will be wiped out from the face of the universe or anyone who poses a threat to my empire…”

‘ _A new war machine that could wipe out threats within seconds…_ ’ Steph thought, her mind whirling, wondering what they were talking about. She then had to hold back a gasp as it suddenly clicked. ‘ _Project Insight, Tony…_ ’

It is possible that this war machine that Schmidt and Dr. Zola were talking about was similar to Project Insight and how they could kill millions of people with it, including Tony.

‘ _If they complete the war machine before Tony and I can even get out of here…_ ’

No, she will not think of that. She was Captain America, she _will_ find a way to get out of this nightmare and get her and Tony back to their world before that happened, maybe even destroy HYDRA along the way while she was at it. She just had to get into Schmidt’s facility somehow without alerting any guards or tripping any alarms, and she needed to bate her time in order to do that. Maybe at night time, Schmidt’s facility wasn’t so heavily guarded as it was now. It was times like these that Steph wished she was good at hacking into systems as Tony was so that maybe she can figure out a way to override the security system and get access to the facility.

She was brought out of her thoughts as she heard Zola speak up once more.

“Kaiser Schmidt, what about your _other problem_?”

“What other problem?”

“I-I know that this is a sensitive topic for you…” Zola began and Steph could hear the nervousness in his voice as he brought up whatever he was about to talk about. “…but I…I think-I think it would be a good idea to address this… _issue_ that you have. It has been almost five years since the start of your reign, Kaiser Schmidt, and many people are waiting anxiously for you and your wife to produce an heir. If anyone ever hears about your issue—”

“No one will ever find out because it is not an issue,” Schmidt snapped out before speaking in a tone that was less harsh. “My dear Stephanie will produce an heir for me in due time…”

Steph had to control her anger at hearing that, her hands balling into fists and her nails digging into the palm of them. She had always hated Schmidt for what a cruel and vile man he was, but to hear him talk about her having his child with no regard to how she felt about it made her really furious! She managed to reel her anger in when she heard Dr. Zola speak once more.

“Kaiser Schmidt, I do not mean to speak out of turn, but I do not think—”

“It is not an issue, Arnim!” Schmidt snapped with such ferocity that it even surprised Steph.

It appeared to have worked, however, for it scared Zola into submission.

“Of course, Kaiser Schmidt, I’m so sorry, please forgive me.”

“You are forgiven,” Schmidt said in a more calming tone. “Come, Dr. Zola, dinner is ready and I’m sure you are hungry.”

Steph then heard their footsteps, telling her that they were walking away, until she couldn’t hear them anymore. Coming out of her hiding spot, she saw Schmidt and Zola nowhere in sight. She looked from the direction of Schmidt’s facility to where Schmidt and Zola went as if trying to decide if she should try breaking into the small facility now or just go to dinner, but then she remembered Amalia’s words from before so she turned and walked in the direction back to the mansion. For now, she was going to play the role of the good and obedient wife, but as soon as everyone was asleep, she was going to find a way into that facility.

She just walked around the fountain and was just at the stairs when she all of a sudden started to feel a bit of a headache. At first, it was just a dull aching pain, but then there came a sharp pain, making Steph stop and her vision became blurred. ‘ _What’s going on? I have not gotten headaches since over a year ago now…_ ’ she thought. Another sharp pain came through her head and she doubled over in pain before something flashed through her mind.

~

_Steph could not breathe. Water was filling up her lungs, and she could not get any air for her arms were being held down, keeping her pinned under the water. She tried using her super strength against the people who were holding her down but found she couldn’t. Soon, she began to lose consciousness as there was no more air to breath and she fought against her assailants less only to suddenly be brought back up and out of the water. She coughed and nearly choked as she tried to breath in some oxygen or the little she had left of it before they put her back under the water._

_Her vision was blurred for a moment, but she could see a black and red figure in front of her, and that figure grabbed a hold of Steph’s throat, forcing her to look up at whoever grabbed a hold of her throat. Her vision became more clearer and she saw the face of Schmidt as the Red Skull, and he had a sneer on his ugly saturated red face._

_“We don’t have to keep doing this,” he told her. “Just say yes and we won’t have to torture you any longer.”_

_Steph was tired and did not want to go through another minute being tortured, but then she felt a rage bubble within her at Schmidt’s words and her will and determination came back in full force. Gathering as much as she could, she spat in Schmidt’s face, making him cry out in disgust as he let go of her throat and backed away from her._

_“I will_ **_never_ ** _say yes!”_

_Schmidt looked back to Steph, and she saw a flash of rage in his eyes before it went away just as quickly._

_“You will say yes. One way or another, I’ll break that spirit of yours and you’ll be mine…”_

_He then signaled the guards to put her back under the water, and Steph felt herself being pushed down and could not breath as water filled up her lungs once more._

~

Steph gasped, doubling over in pain as she held her head in her hands as she felt another sharp pain at the end of that. Pretty soon, the pain eased to nothing but a dull ache until it ceased to exist. Once that happened, Steph was able to bring herself up straight, holding a hand to her temple and breathing heavily as she did.

‘ _What in the hell was that?_ ’ she thought. ‘ _Was that a memory? A memory of me from this universe?_ ’

Before she could even think more on it, she suddenly heard a voice calling out to someone.

“ _Herrin! Herrin, wo bist du? Abendessen ist fertig!_ ” (Mistress! Mistress, where are you? Dinner is ready!)

It was Amalia as Steph recognized her voice, and she realized she was looking for her. No doubt to let her know that dinner was ready.

“Oh, there you are, ma’am, I was looking for you,” Amalia said as she appeared at the top of the stairs and walked down them to meet Steph. “I just wanted to let you know that _Abendessen_ is ready, and Kaiser Schmidt and Dr. Zola are already waiting for…. Ma’am, geht es dir gut?” (Are you okay?)

She asked this when she saw her mistress rubbing onto her temples as if she had a headache.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I think.”

“Do you have a headache, ma’am? You hardly ever get headaches, what could have caused it?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure…”

“What’s going on out here?” came a voice from the top of the stairs, and both women turned to see that it was Schmidt.

“Kaiser Schmidt!” Amalia cried in an almost too loud voice, making Steph wince. She was practically giving away that she was hiding something, and Schmidt seemed to notice as he raised an eyebrow at her. “Forgive me, Herr (sir), I was just looking for Kaiserin Schmidt to let her know that dinner is ready.”

Schmidt looked between Amalia and Steph with suspicion in his eyes. Steph was able to keep a more neutral face a bit better than before, but Steph could see Amalia wringing her hands and swallowing nervously with beads of sweat dripping down her neck.

“What are you doing out here, Stephanie?” Schmidt finally asked her.

“I just wanted to get out for some fresh air, is that a crime?” Steph replied.

She winced as she realized that her tone sounded a little too snippy for her to be playing the role of an obedient wife, and Schmidt noticed for he glared at her.

“You should have more care for your health and safety, _meine liebe Frau_ ,” he said, “you did faint not too long ago, and people would not hesitate to attack our home and harm you when you are vulnerable.”

“I highly doubt anyone will succeed in attacking this place with the level of security you implemented,” Steph replied, referring to the weapons placed along the wall. “Besides, even if they do, I can take them. I have Erskine’s serum running through my veins.”

It was here that Schmidt smirked before chuckling.

“That is what you think.”

Steph felt a shiver go down her spine when he said that. What did that mean? Did Schmidt know something about the serum that she didn’t?

“Come, _meine liebchen_ ,” Schmidt said as he held a hand out to Steph, “it’s time for dinner.”

If the situation was different and Steph was not stuck in some alternative reality as Johann Schmidt’s wife, she wouldn’t even take his offered hand. She rather just spit into his face and smack his hand away, tell him what kind of monster he was in the not so nice and kid-friendly way, but since she _was_ in an alternative reality where she _was_ the wife of the Red Skull, she couldn’t do that. It would give him more reason to suspect something was up and she was probably already spreading on thin ice with him as it was, so she walked up the stairs towards him and took his offered hand.

Schmidt smiled when she did this and he then placed a gentle kiss on the back of her hand (Steph reminded herself to wash that hand once dinner was done) before putting her arm through the crook of his arm and leading her back inside the mansion. Amalia was not too far behind them, but she still kept a certain amount of distance that was deemed socially acceptable between a maid and her master and mistress.

Schmidt led Steph around the mansion on the first level with the latter keeping note of the turns they made before finally arriving at what looked like a small dining room. Dr. Zola was already in the room and seated at the table when they came in, but as soon as they did, he got up from his seat and bowed. It wasn’t until Schmidt gave him permission to sit that he sat back down, and that’s when Schmidt unhooked his arm from Steph’s to sit at the head of the semi-long rectangular table.

“Sit and eat with us, Stephanie,” Schmidt said when Steph did not move from the entrance of the room. “You must be famished after a long and tiring day.”

‘ _Long and tiring is definitely one way to describe this day_ ,’ Steph thought.

She goes up to the chair Schmidt was pointing to on his right side and she meant to pull out the chair herself, but is almost surprised when a man in a butler’s uniform pulls out the chair for her. Thanking the butler for that, she sat down in her chair and then saw the butler and Amalia go through a swinging door that was in the corner of the room right behind Schmidt.

“Are you cold, _liebchen_? I did not see you wearing that earlier,” Schmidt asked Steph, referring to the red cardigan she was wearing.

“Oh, yeah, just chilly, ‘s all,” Steph replied and she rubbed her arms up and down to show that she was cold, even though she really wasn’t.

“Perhaps I can have someone turn up the heater for you?”

“No,” Steph responded and then she cleared her throat when she realized that she said that almost too loudly, making Schmidt give her a surprise look. “I mean, no thank you, I’m fine, turning up the heater is not necessary.”

“Are you sure you are alright, liebling (darling)? You didn’t hit your head too hard, did you?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me. After all, as you said, it has been a long and tiring day for me.”

That didn’t seem to deter Schmidt, for he gave her a suspicious look. Before he could open his mouth to no doubt ask more questions, the swinging door opened and Amalia and other servants came out with plates of food. Steph sighed with relief, glad for the interruption, and she hoped that he did not bring it up again. Then she thought that this was Schmidt she was dealing with, he’ll most likely remember and bring it up later.

Dinner is served and they all ate in relative silence with Schmidt and Zola talking mainly. Steph noticed how they stuck to discussions revolving around politics and nothing about the war with the rebels, which made Steph come to the conclusion that it wasn’t to be discussed in front of her. While Schmidt ate as if he was a starving man (fast metabolism due to the serum, no doubt), Steph hardly touched her food, only picking and slowly nibbling at it. It more than likely had to do with the fact that it was weird to be sitting at a table with people she absolutely hated and to see Schmidt so relaxed beside her as her husband. She did not think she was going to get used to seeing him as her husband, and she didn’t want to.

The other reason was because she was beginning to worry about the others. She did not know what happened after she and Tony got zapped into this universe, and all the bad possibilities of what could have happened started to build up. Pretty soon, the more she thought about it, the more the anxiety started to build up. ‘ _Now is not the time to have an anxiety attack, especially in front of Schmidt of all people_ ,’ Steph thought as she tried to keep herself calm. She grabbed her necklace, the one Tony gave her, as a way to center herself. It was a habit she started to develop not too long after the Battle of Earth. Whenever she got scared or worried over something so much that it would create an anxiety attack, she would grab the necklace as a way to center herself and then she would say a prayer about whatever was worrying her. When she grabbed the necklace, she sent a prayer to the universe that everyone was safe, especially Tasha and Tony, hoping that the latter was safe wherever he was. Grabbing the necklace, however, was not the right move, for Schmidt noticed her doing this.

“Are you alright, Stephanie?” he asked her, bringing her out of her thoughts.

“I am fine, why do you ask?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that you are not touching your food and playing with a necklace that I don’t recall seeing you wear before. Where did you get that necklace? I don’t think I ever bought you that necklace…”

The necklace that Schmidt was referring to was a silver heart-shaped pendant with a silver chain that was beginning to rust. On the edge of the pendant, there was an emerald line with studded diamonds on the inside of the line and her name was engraved in the middle of the pendant. There was a clasp on the side of the pendant, indicating it was a locket, and it was large enough to fit a small picture or two in there. The necklace was given to her by Tony on their 1-year anniversary, and she was very fond of the necklace. It reminded her of a very memorable night for both her and Tony. Ever since getting the necklace, she had worn it almost 24/7, even on her missions, and she was currently wearing the necklace in front of Schmidt!

Steph cursed in her head and nearly smacked herself at the stupidity of that. Of course Schmidt would notice something as simple as her wearing a necklace he never gave to her, he was practically her in every way, at least physically. And there was also the fact that the necklace was not exactly “empress material”.

She did not know how she was going to excuse her way out of this one. She did not know anything about the Steph of this world or if she has any friends or if Schmidt even lets her out of this big mansion to hang out with people, so she tried coming up with a lie. Hopefully one that was believable and would make him less suspicious.

“The necklace was a gift from a friend.”

“What kind of friend?”

“A female friend…”

Schmidt looked between Steph’s face and the necklace with a suspicious look on his face before it changed to annoyed and he finally spoke up.

“Don’t tell me Nataliya gave that to you?” he asked with a contemptive sneer. “Only her kind would buy something as cheap and tacky as _that!_ ”

Any other time, Steph would be offended by Schmidt for insulting Tony’s taste and his work, as he bought the necklace but added the design himself, but she was glad she found a quick lie and say who exactly gave her the necklace. She did not know who this Nataliya was, but could only assume she was a possible friend or someone Schmidt forces her to hang out with, but decided to play along.

“Yes, it was Nataliya who gave it to me, and I personally don’t find it tacky,” Steph said. “I thought it was rather sweet of her to give it to me.”

“Of course you do,” Schmidt said, rolling his eyes. “You’ve always liked those small, insignificant things, but as _die Kaiserin und meine Frau_ , you need to wear jewelry that is befitting of your title.”

“I wear whatever kind of jewelry I want to wear,” Steph responded in a snippy tone before she could even stop herself. She realized what she did and almost regretted it.

‘ _Shit, not exactly playing the role of a good and obedient wife, are you?_ ’

She could see Schmidt getting angry as he glared at her, but he didn’t hit her or anything like that like she was expecting him to. It was very obvious he was angry as his face was turning slightly red and his hands were beginning to ball into a fist, but he was also giving her a look as if trying to read her. It made Steph wish that he was just angry and hit her, but he didn’t. He seemed to be more trying to read her than angry at her and that worried her.

“You are acting strange tonight, Stephanie, you weren’t like this morning when I left for the city,” he finally said.

At that, Steph felt her heart hammer in her chest, but she managed to keep her composure.

“I’m not sure I know what you mean…”

“Oh I think you do,” Schmidt replied. “There seems to be something different about you…”

“Different as in how?”

“As if you are acting like your old self, but you are not exactly your old self…”

Steph felt her heart hammering against her chest even harder, but she did not once let her composure down.

“Is there something you wish to tell me, _liebchen_?” Schmidt asked.

Steph does not get the chance to say anything for the sound of shouting could be heard outside of the dining room. It sounded as if someone was arguing and footsteps could be heard approaching the dining room.

“Kaiser Schmidt is currently having dinner, _Herr_ , and he does not like to be disturbed when eating,” someone said,

“Kaiser Schmidt will understand, this is an emergency. Now, get out of my way before I shoot you!”

“By Odin, what is going on out there?” Schmidt asked.

“Did you call for a war meeting tonight?” Zola asked him.

“No, I did not.”

Schmidt then got up, throwing his napkin on the table, and walked towards the entrance of the dining room. The voices got louder as he did this and then two people burst into the room, making both Steph and Zola jump out of their seats. The two people that burst into the room were a staffer and a young man in an officer’s uniform. The officer’s uniform the young man was wearing looked like a Nazi officer’s uniform, except the difference is that the man’s service cap had the symbol of HYDRA and not the Nazi symbol. The young man looked to be in his mid to late twenties and looked between 5”8 to 5”10 inches tall, and he had light brown hair and hazel eyes. He was very handsome, but, currently, a look of fear and distress was marring his handsome features, making everyone in the room worry.

“General Claus Hoffmann, what is the meaning of this?” Schmidt asked. “I am having dinner with my wife and Dr. Zola right now.”

The man named Claus Hoffmann took deep breaths as if he had ran all the way here from wherever he had come from. It took a couple of moments to catch his breath before finally speaking up.

“ _Es tut mir Leid_ , Kaiser Schmidt, for disrupting your dinner time, but I wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t important.”

“What’s going on?” Steph asked the young officer.

“Leave the questioning of my men to me, Stephanie!” Schmidt snapped at her fiercely and turned his attention back to Hoffmann. “Well, what is going on?”

“It has to do with the attack on Kiev…”

“What about that rebellion infested city?” Schmidt asked rather impatiently.

“Something has happened there, and I think it’s important for you and Dr. Zola hear about it,” Hoffmann replied.

Whatever Hoffmann had to say was serious, and everyone in the room could tell by the urgency in his face and tone. Schmidt looked between Hoffmann and Steph before settling his gaze on Hoffmann.

“Very well,” he said, “let’s discuss this in my study room. Stephanie, you stay here and finish eating your dinner, I have important war matters to discuss.”

“No,” Steph responded. This made Schmidt stop and he slowly turned back to her, giving her a challenging look as if daring her to defy him, but Steph did not back down. “I am not just going to stay here. If something happened in Kiev, I have a right to know as well. As you said, I am the Kaiserin.”

It was here that Schmidt got angry, glaring at her and his face turned red. It was almost weird and ironic to see his face turning red. Steph thought it was rather fitting as he was nothing but a red skull at one point.

“Excuse me, gentlemen, please meet me in my study room,” Schmidt finally said in a calming tone that did not reach his eyes, “I need to speak to my wife privately.”

Zola and Hoffmann looked uncomfortable when Schmidt said that, but they obeyed him anyway and left the room to go to Schmidt’s study room. Once they left and the sound of their footsteps were no longer heard, Schmidt turned his attention to Steph.

“You must remember your place, dear Stephanie,” he said as he walked towards her until he was directly in front of her. Steph had to look up just to look him in the eye since he was 6”1 and Steph was 5”9. “War is no place for a woman, and you will do well to remember that.”

There was a bit of a threat in his tone, but Steph refused to be intimidated.

“You forget, husband, that I once fought you during the war,” she responded as she crossed her arms and glared at him. “And I destroyed your bases with relative ease as well as any man would have been able to.”

“So you keep reminding me, but I would also like to remind you that I did defeat you on the Valkyrie, proving that I am stronger than you and you are weak. I even took what was rightfully mine from you as soon as I broke that annoying and determined spirit of yours, and it seems I may have to break it again.”

Steph said nothing in response as she thought back to that little flash she had outside in the backyard and a shiver ran down her spine as she did. Is that how Schmidt was able to “break her spirit”? By torturing her until she couldn’t take it anymore? Knowing how stubborn and strong-willed she is, it must have taken him a long time to successfully do it.

Schmidt continued speaking, bringing Steph out of her thoughts.

“Since you seem determined to act less like the good and obedient wife you are supposed to be, perhaps the machine will remind you who is in charge here,” he said.

He then called a guard, and a guard came into the room.

“Take her to her room and lock her in there for the rest of the night with nothing to eat, and she is not to leave her room unless I say it is okay for her to.”

The guard nodded and grabbed a hold of Steph’s arm to take her to her room.

Steph normally would have resisted as she wouldn’t let anyone tell her what to do, especially from the likes of Schmidt, but she was already treading on thin ice with him. He was beginning to suspect something was wrong and the look on Amalia’s face when she talked about the machine replayed in her head. If she resisted any more, then whatever torture Schmidt had in mind was going to be worse than it will be later. So she allowed the HYDRA guard to take her to her room to be locked up.

As that happened and she saw Schmidt leave to go to his office, she thought back to the fearful look on that young man's face. Something happened in Kiev that had scared HYDRA; otherwise, an officer would not have come up to the mansion to raise an alarm about it in the first place. Whatever it was, she was determined to find out what it was.

* * *

_Something was not right with her._

Schmidt thought this as he watched the guard take his wife away to her room. He noticed it the moment he came home from Berlin. As soon as he came up to her room and heard her yelling at the doctor, calling him by his last name, he had noticed something was off with her. She never called him by his last name, not in a while now, and that same determined look that he thought he had broken what felt like years ago was back. She also appeared to have forgotten about the device that Zola has had when she has seen it multiple times before. At first, Schmidt thought it was because his wife simply did not understand science as she was more artistically inclined than she was a scientist, but when it appeared she had forgotten that he had the surgery to remove the negative effects of Erskine’s first super soldier serum, he began to suspect something was up.

He did not believe for one minute that she simply forgot just because she hit her head “harder than she thought”. Even if she did, there was no way a simple fall would make her just forget, _she was a super soldier!_ Her regenerative abilities are faster and her memory is far superior than that of your average human being, and he has the same abilities as her.

It also seemed as if she was hiding something. What she was hiding, he did not know, for he was having a hard time reading her, and he _never_ had any difficulty in doing that before. Stephanie Rogers had always been an easy person to read, she was a woman and, therefore, emotional. She often wore her heart on her sleeve, a character trait that Schmidt had always seen as a weakness and would often use it to his advantage. Now, though, it was like he could not even read her at all. She kept a straight face the entire time when he questioned her if everything was alright. In the years he has known her both as Captain America and now his wife, Stephanie Schmidt nee Rogers has never been a good liar. She would often lie through her teeth and Schmidt would often press her to tell the truth until he backed her into a corner and she finally confessed what she had been hiding from him. If that didn’t work, then he would threaten to either hurt her or the person that she cared about the most in the world.

Why she decided to keep that person alive was beyond his understanding. That person has turned into nothing but a vegetable and had no sense of purpose in this life other than to suffer. False hope, no doubt, that one day they’ll escape together, he thought. There was no hope of escape for either his wife or her friend, he had broken that determined spirit out of her long ago. Or at least he thought he did.

He could definitely see that determined spirit in her again. Her sapphire blue eyes were so full of fire and determination that it made Schmidt almost miss that part of her when he first forced her hand into marriage, but it also made him worried as that same fire is what helped her nearly escape the first time. But there was something else in her eyes too, they looked like they were full of age and wisdom as well as if she had seen and experienced a lot more in her lifetime than he has. That was impossible, though, his wife was only thirty one years old and he was nearing the age of fifty! She has seen and been through things and has done things that your average woman has never done before, but that did not mean she was older or wiser than him.

Still, though, something was up and he was going to get to the bottom of what it was exactly she was hiding. Perhaps the machine will loosen her tongue a little, but he will deal with that later. For now, he had other matters to attend to, such as whatever General Hoffmann had to tell him and Zola about what happened in Kiev.

“Gentlemen, please forgive me, I must apologize for my wife’s impertinence,” Schmidt said to the men as he walked into the conference room of his study room and shut the door behind him. “She has been out of sorts lately.”

Hoffmann only nodded in response, unsure how to respond to that.

“So, what seems to be the urgency, General Hoffmann?”

“This is the urgency, Kaiser Schmidt,” General Hoffmann responded as he slammed a file onto the conference table and slid it over to Schmidt.

Schmidt caught the file and picked it up, opening it up once he did. Zola looked over his shoulder once he did to see what was in the file. Inside the file was a colored picture of what looked like to be a…robot? Or at least that’s what it looked like. The robot’s armour was maroon and gold and it had a golden face with its eyes that were glowing, and there was something in the middle of it’s chest that was glowing blue and in the shape of an upside down triangle. The robot was in a lunge position with it’s left knee on the ground and it’s right foot forward while it’s right arm was outstretched and aiming a weapon at whatever they were aiming at the time this picture was taken.

“What is this, General Hoffmann?” Schmidt asked. “ _This_ is why you interrupted my dinner time? Over a single robot? I hardly doubt a single robot calls for an emergency.”

“With all due respect, Kaiser Schmidt, I believe it is,” General Hoffmann replied. “This robot not only single handedly took on a whole unit of our soldiers in Kiev, but it also managed to destroy an entire tank! Our tanks are considered foul proof against any rebellion weapons, but this robot managed to destroy it in just a mere second.”

Schmidt raised his eyebrows in surprise at hearing this.

“A single robot managed to take on a whole unit of soldiers and destroyed one of my tanks? How is that even possible?!”

“Well, according to the current report we have on Kiev, Herr, it wasn’t exactly alone, and as to how it managed to do that, we aren’t sure.”

“I’m assuming that rebel divisions were in the city trying to save the worthless lives of those who lived there?” Schmidt asked Hoffmann

“You assumed correctly, Herr.”

“That thing in it’s chest…what is it?” Zola asked as he held up the picture to Hoffmann.

“We…don’t know,” he responded.

“You don’t know?” Schmidt repeated, sounding annoyed. “You come all the way from Berlin to tell me about a robot who managed to take on our soldiers and destroy our tank, and you can’t tell me anything about it? Why did you come all this way if you did not have any information regarding this robot?”

“Because we believe it is a threat to your reign, Kaiser Schmidt, and a very powerful one at that. Maybe just as powerful as… _your wife_.”

At that, Schmidt scoffed.

“No one is as powerful as her,” he said. “ _I_ am more powerful than her. I defeated her back during the war, proving that I am far more stronger and superior than her.”

“Of course, Herr, I meant no disrespect, but I think we should take this as a potential threat and take it seriously,” Hoffmann replied. “We believe this robot was built by a rebels division and that they could be building more if that is in fact the case. If they are, then your reign and our cause could be at risk.”

“Do not make me laugh, General Hoffmann, none of the rebel divisions have enough brains or resources to make an army of robots more powerful than our own weapons.”

It was quiet for a moment as Hoffmann appeared to hesitate before finally saying something.

“We believe that only one person within one of the rebel divisions has enough brains to do so,” he said.

Schmidt figured out what Hoffmann was referring to and once he did, a disdainful sneer came onto his face.

“Howard Stark…”

Of course, his wife’s old friend and lover.

Howard Stark, once a billionaire now a rebel in the SSR division, was a genius in his own right. His brilliant mind couldn’t come close to Schmidt’s own as he considered his brilliance as far superior to anyone else’s, but even he had to admit, Stark was brilliant in his own way. Schmidt had tried to capture him once, to use him against his wife and to have him build weapons and machines for HYDRA, but Stark had disappeared from the face of the Earth long ago not too long after Schmidt cleansed the world and made it better. However, all of HYDRA knew that Stark was with the SSR rebel division and no one knew where they were as they had hidden themselves pretty well, so no one knew where Stark and the SSR were.

Howard Stark was probably the only person in this world brilliant enough to build a robotic army against HYDRA, but Schmidt knew he wasn’t that brilliant. From what he was seeing in the picture, the robot was far more advanced than even his own weaponry and that was saying something, considering that his technology was far superior to anyone else’s. What was this thing and where did it come from? Schmidt thought this as he looked at the picture of the robot.

“Was anyone able to apprehend this robot?” Schmidt asked.

“No,” Hoffmann said with a shake of his head. “After it destroyed our tank, it disappeared from the city. Some of the leaders at the city there thought it was best to nuke it, to be on the safe side. They thought it was too powerful and dangerous to try to apprehend it…”

“And they did this without so much as consulting me or any of my top generals about it?” Schmidt nearly yelled.

“Apparently, they tried reaching out to you, Herr, but they couldn’t, so they did what they thought was best—”

“I decide what is best for my reign, Officer Hoffmann, not some lowly officers who do not know how to fight against a single robot!” Schmidt interrupted. “I’m assuming that the robot was destroyed when the city was bombed?”

“That’s the thing, Kaiser Schmidt, no one was sure if it was in the city when the bomb went off,” Hoffmann replied. “They could not find it anywhere in the city, so the leaders decided to be on the safe side and nuke it.”

“And none of them stopped to consider to look _outside_ of the city?”

“We…did not think of that, Herr.”

Hoffmann appeared to look embarrassed and ashamed and rightfully so. _Idiots! All of them!_ Leave it to a bunch of low-life imbeciles to lay siege on a city and then decide to nuke it all because they could not find this robot anywhere and thought it was too powerful and dangerous to capture. Only they did not stop to think! However, if they could not find it in the city, there was still that possibility that it’s out there.

“So, then there is a chance that this robot or whoever is making it function could still be out there?”

It appeared as if that was another thing Hoffmann did not think about, for he then had a look of epiphany on his face.

“It is a possibility we did not quite think of, Kaiser Schmidt, but if the robot was not in the city when the bomb went off, then most likely, it is still out there and it is very much of a threat.”

“I do not see how one small robot could be a threat to our kaiser’s reign,” Zola said in an almost disbelief tone. “It is just one small robot after all.”

“I would not dismiss that robot’s power so readily, Dr. Zola,” Hoffmann responded. “Survivors of the unit who fought it face-to-face can attest to its strength.”

“There are survivors of the unit who fought against it?” Schmidt asked.

Hoffmann nodded.

“How many survivors were there and where are they now?”

“About 3, and they are currently still outside of Kiev, Kaiser Schmidt.”

“Bring them back here to Germany, I want to question them myself. They could give us some insight on this robot. Order your spies to gather any information on where this thing is and where it might have come from or who built it. Also, go through all of the rebel divisions radios, find out where it could have gone if it was not in the city. You are dismissed, General Hoffmann.”

“Hail HYDRA, Herr,” Hoffmann replied, saluting.

“Hail HYDRA,” both Schmidt and Zola responded.

Hoffmann bowed before finally leaving the conference room to relay Schmidt’s orders. Once he left, Zola turned to Schmidt.

“Mein Kaiser, do you really believe that Stark would build something like this?” Zola asked him, referring to the robot in the picture. “Even with Stark’s genius, he nor the SSR have enough resources to build something as powerful and advanced as this.”

“I don’t, and I believe you to be right, Arnim,” Schmidt replied as he looked at the picture, studying it. “But General Hoffmann is right, we need to treat this as a potential threat and find out where this thing came from and who built it. And if Stark did build this and is building more of them, then he and the SSR could turn the tide of this war and I have worked too long and too hard to bring the world that it deserves only for a bunch of inferior beings to take that away all because they believe in the notion of freedom!”

He said that last word with a sneer on his face. Zola said nothing in response as he could not really argue there. If the robot was really as powerful as General Hoffmann said it was and _is_ with the SSR division, then the reign of HYDRA will definitely be at risk.

“Do you think you can replicate this robot?” Schmidt asked Zola, bringing him out of his thoughts.

“Possibly,” Zola replied, “but I would need to know the functions of it first before I could.”

“Perhaps once we talk to the survivors, we might get an answer to that. Until then, let’s focus on completing our new war machine.”

“Yes, Kaiser Schmidt.”

“Oh, and Arnim, tell the guards to prepare the machine for tomorrow. I believe my wife needs to be disciplined and understand her place in this household.”

Zola looked uncomfortable at the mention of that, but he went and did as he was told. Once he was gone, Schmidt looked at the picture of the robot one more time before he put it back in the file and shut it. For now, he was not going to worry too much about this thing, whatever it was, until he had more answers, so he put the file somewhere safe before going back to finish his dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there you go, there was chapter five, hope you guys enjoyed it!
> 
> Whenever I use the word 'Herr' without a name after it, it usually translates to 'sir'. Or, at least, that's what Google Translate said -.-. I will post Chapter Six as soon as I can.
> 
> I edited a certain part in this chapter as of today (5/21). I realized there was not much of a height difference between 5”11 and 6”1 and Schmidt’s chest is at Steph’s eye level so I had to fix that.


	6. Nightmares and Daddy Stark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both Tony and Steph have nightmares, and Tony ends up meeting his father for the first time in the parallel universe while Steph ends up doing something that she feels compromises who she is as a person

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a hot minute, but here I am with a new chapter. I do apologize for the delay, but I got a huge writer's block and since I'm now back at work from the furlough, I don't have a lot of time to work on this as much as I'd like. But here is the sixth chapter! I do appreciate the kudos and some comments I received on the story. I did get a question about some of the WWII factions and what happened to them. They are in here, but the factions will probably not be very prominent as they will not be the main focus in this story, there will probably be mentions of them and what happened to them, and they will (possibly) be seen in future chapters, but other than that, they are not the main focus of the story as this is an Avengers fanfiction. I hope that clears any confusion.
> 
> I do apologize but this chapter is a bit long, I attempted to condense it down, but the way I wanted it to end, the chapter ended up being longer than I wanted it to be. Also, WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! There is a scene in this chapter where it has a bit of a rape scene in it, it's not very descriptive as it only comes in a flash for a VERY brief moment, but I just wanted to warn my most sensitive readers, just in case. I will do my best to warn my readers ahead of time of which chapters will be more sensitive than others.
> 
> Hope you enjoy the chapter and please leave a kudos and comment if you do. No flames, but constructive criticism is welcomed

_It was a beautiful evening on a clear night that you could see the view of the city more clearly than ever before. The mood was set as romantic smooth jazz was being played in the background, and couples danced to the music on the dance floor. Tony recognized this place, it was a dance hall where he took Steph to one of their very first dates where you could eat and then danced, if someone was up for it. The dance hall definitely had a 1940’s vibe, and it was one of the reasons why Tony took her here. The music that the band was playing was the same smooth jazz music they played the night Tony took Steph here. Tony was not much into this kind of music, that was more of something Steph was into, but he could not deny that the music set the mood right as couples on the dance floor embraced each other as they slow danced to the music. It made Tony feel content._

_What made him feel even more content was being on the dance floor and dancing with the woman that he loved. Both he and his date were dressed rather formally with Tony wearing a white tuxedo while his date was wearing a long baby blue dress. The material of his date’s dress was made out of chiffon and there was a beaded belt around the middle with a slit on the right side that came up all the way to above his date’s knee. She had a layer over the top part of the dress that turned into sleeves, and they were off the shoulder. Tony could not see the woman’s face as her head was laying on his shoulder, but could see that she had blonde curly hair that was halfway put up by a barrette, and he had his arms wrapped around her, feeling the warmth of being in her arms and content that he was dancing with the woman that he loved._

_Tony kissed the side of her head and dropped his head down, tucking his chin on her shoulder and sighing contently. He brought her even closer to him, both still swaying to the music as he did._

_“You know, I haven’t felt this happy in a long time,” he said to his date._

_The woman lifted her head up from his shoulder that she was resting on, and Tony lifted his head as well to look at his date and saw the beautiful face of Stephanie Grace Rogers. For a moment, Tony lost his breath when he saw her beautiful smiling face, and he thought to himself how is it that he got so lucky to be with such a wonderful and gorgeous woman such as her._

_“And what exactly makes you so happy, Mr. Stark?” she asked._

_“Maybe it has something to do with a very beautiful woman named Stephanie Rogers,” Tony replied. “She is also known as the beloved superhero Captain America and is the leader to a team of superheroes known as the Avengers. She is beautiful, strong-willed, stubborn—to a fault at times—but more than anything, she is loyal to those she loves.”_

_“This Stephanie Rogers sounds like a lovely woman, I wonder where the lucky woman is…”_

_“I see that the lucky woman is currently dancing in my arms right now, and she isn’t just lucky because she is dancing with me, Tony Stark.”_

_Steph rolled her eyes at that, but she did not seem annoyed by Tony’s comment. There was a bit of a smile on her face as she rolled her eyes, which told Tony that she wasn’t annoyed with his usual arrogant attitude._

_“No, it certainly has_ **_nothing_ ** _to do with being in the arms of the Tony Stark,” she said sarcastically, and Tony smirked at her in response. “And I don’t know about being beautiful…”_

_“You give yourself very little credit, gorgeous,” Tony interrupted her, “you really are the most wonderful and gorgeous woman I have ever met, and I would do anything for you. I’m very sure you would not hesitate to do the same for me.”_

_It was quiet between them as they continued swaying to the music, and Steph looked up at Tony with a loving gaze as they did._

_“Without a doubt,” she finally said, “even when you think you don’t deserve it.”_

_Tony felt his heart soar at her reassurance. He knew that she had reassured him multiple times before, but he always felt better about himself every time she did. Leaning down, he pressed his lips against hers to give her a slow and gentle kiss until it became more passionate, both of them nearly forgetting they were in a public place. It was sometime before they finally broke away from each other, and they leaned their foreheads against each other’s, their noses touching._

_“I love you, Stephanie Rogers,” Tony whispered._

_“And I love you infinity, Tony Stark.”_

_“Will you marry me?”_

_Steph pulled her head away from Tony with a surprised look on her face, and Tony feared that he said the wrong thing. Steph was driven speechless as her eyes were wide and her mouth was hanging open in shock. Her mouth moved as if trying to say something, but no words were coming out of her mouth. She never got a chance to respond to Tony’s question when, suddenly, a scream pierced through the air._

_Chaos ensued as everyone else started screaming and running away from whatever danger was in the room. Tony and Steph turned to the entrance of the room and, to their horror, saw that Ebony Maw and Proxima Midnight were on either side of…_ **_Thanos._ **

_Everyone screamed and ran away from the mad titan and his children, and Tony and Steph had to get out of the way in order to prevent themselves from getting trampled. They then noticed Thanos lift his right hand, and it took Tony a few moments to realize that over Thanos’ right hand was the infinity gauntlet. Steph realized it too, for when Tony looked over at her, her eyes were wide in horror. She shouted, but before she and Tony could even move to react, Thanos put his hand into a fist and the power infinity stone flashed before their eyes._

_Next thing Tony knew, he was knocked off his feet and he felt the whole building crumbling on top of him. He came to not too long after that, and he coughed as the fumes from the crumbling building filled up his lungs. He tried getting up, but he found himself unable to move, he couldn’t even move his hand to reach his watch to call on his suit. He groaned and screamed in frustration as he tried getting up, but the debris and rubble from the now destroyed dance hall kept him pinned down. He finally stopped after a while, breathing heavily against the strain of the effort of trying to get up, then he thought, ‘_ **_Where’s Steph?_ ** _’_

 _“_ **_TONY!_ ** _”_

_He heard the sound of her voice calling his name in urgency. Looking up as best as he could from being pinned down face-down, his body went rigid with fear when he saw Thanos had Steph lifted in the air in a chokehold. She was staring at Thanos with fear in her eyes and her mouth was wide open, gasping for air, and it was then she looked towards Tony, her eyes pleading with him to help her. It was a look that nearly drove Tony to the edge and he fought harder to get the rubble off of him, but it was useless._

_Thanos turned to Tony and gave him a wicked grin when he did. “I am inevitable,” he said._

_He slowly lifted his other hand—the one that was covered by the infinity gauntlet—and Tony realized what he was about to do. He fought and struggled even more to set himself free, but the rubble would not budge. It was hopeless, he could not move. He looked up just in time to see Thanos ready to do the snap, and Tony looked at Steph for what was going to be the last time and could see the same hopeless look on her face. It broke him to see her look at him that way, but he did not want to look away as he wanted her face to be the last thing he saw before they both died._

_Thanos then snapped his fingers, and there was a flash of a bright light…_

~

“ _NO, STEPHANIE!_ ”

“Tony, wake up!” came an alarmed voice.

Tony opened his eyes, his heart pounding so hard against his chest that he could feel it all the way to his eardrums, and saw the worried look of Morita instead of the evil purple face of the genocidal titan. Looking around, he saw the worried faces of the remaining Howling Commandos, and he was reminded of the events that happened yesterday. He sighed with relief when he realized he just had a nightmare, a rather vivid nightmare. Judging from the concerned looks not only Morita was giving him but Jones and Dernier, he must’ve been screaming during the nightmare. The only person who was not really showing concern was Dugan who was standing a couple of feet away from them with an annoyed look on his face. Even though the nightmare was over, it was bringing up memories for Tony on the day of the Battle of Earth and just thinking about it was making Tony’s anxiety rise.

“Hey, easy there, cowboy, take deep breaths,” Jones said in a soothing tone when he saw that Tony was near hyperventilating. “Breath in, breath out…”

Tony did as Jones instructed, reminding himself of what his therapist taught him whenever he had an anxiety attack. After a moment or so, Tony was able to breath a little easier and his erratic heartbeat began to calm down a little bit.

“Better?” Jones asked and Tony nodded after some time.

“Is there any water?” Tony asked after realizing how dry his mouth was.

Morita nodded before handing him a canteen, and Tony took a long, deep gulp out of it. It wasn’t until Morita took the canteen back that Tony finally stopped.

“Slow down, buddy, we have to conserve that until we get picked up at the pick-up location.”

“ _That was one nasty dream you’ve had, you were thrashing and screaming,_ ” Dernier said. “ _Nearly woke up the entire encampment!_ ”

“What were you dreaming about?” Morita asked.

“Uh, nothing, don’t worry about it,” Tony replied, “it was just a nightmare.”

He really did not want to explain what his nightmare was about and who Thanos was. Not to the Howling Commandos, they wouldn’t understand and it would probably give the more paranoid one reason to lock him up in the brigg. That is, if they even had a brigg. Most rebel soldiers didn’t have one; plus, he was too tired to go over it.

“Was it about Steph?” Jones asked and Tony looked at him. “You were screaming her name while you were dreaming.”

Tony did not respond to Jones’ question; instead, he responded by asking, “What time is it?”

“It is 4:35 a.m.,” Morita answered as he looked at his watch.

“Only four in the morning?!” Tony nearly shouted in a surprised tone. “How long was I asleep? I feel like I didn’t get any sleep at all.”

“You were out like a light around 11 or 12ish, so you got at least four to five hours of sleep.”

Tony groaned as he rubbed his eyes furiously, still feeling rather fatigued. He felt like he could not go back to sleep, though, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to, afraid he might have another nightmare about Thanos.

“I suppose it would be too much to ask if you guys have any coffee around?” he asked them in a jesting, yet serious tone.

It was Morita who caught onto his jesting, for he smirked and said in response in a teasing tone, “You could always ask HYDRA if you could borrow some.”

Tony smiled, glad that someone in the Commandos had a sense of humor. “Is there breakfast being served right now?” he asked.

“Yeah, over by the infirmary tent,” Jones responded, pointing to it. “They’ve been serving it for an hour or so now since we have to head out before dawn.”

“Well, then, I better get my fill before you guys close the kitchen,” Tony said as he got up. He started to head towards the infirmary tent, but was stopped when Dugan spoke up to him.

“Hey, Tin Man!” he shouted, making Tony turn and glare at him for the nickname. “Whose Thanos?”

Tony stiffened and said nothing for the first few moments as he stared at Dugan. Morita was the closest to Tony, and he could have sworn he saw Tony visibly shake and a bit of fear in his eyes at the mention of that name. Whoever that was to him, it was someone who had a severe negative impact to make him fear someone.

“He’s no one,” Tony finally responded.

He turned to walk away, but was once again stopped by Dugan.

“He seems to be a big deal if you’re having nightmares about him,” he called out to him. “Who is Thanos? Is he someone who works for HYDRA? Is he the one that trained you and sent you to us? Well, you can tell your superior that your mission is in vain ‘cause I’m onto you…”

It was quiet once more between them as Jones and Dernier looked between Tony and Dugan with nervous looks on their faces while Morita gave Dugan a warning glare. Tony’s back was facing them, but the others could see that he was getting angry, for his hands were balling into a fist and beginning to shake with rage. What happened next took all of the Commandos by surprise: Tony touched his watch and his watch began to expand and turn into a gauntlet. It took a moment for Dugan to realize what was going on and he reached for his gun to defend himself, but Tony was quicker. Turning around quickly once his watch turned into an gauntlet, he outstretched his arm with his opened palm facing Dugan and fired a repulsor at the latter. The repulsor knocked Dugan off of his feet and sent him flying a couple feet away, rolling and landing face down on the ground.

This commotion caused most of the soldiers who were already awake to be on alert, and they all raised their weapons at Tony. Morita stood up and outstretched his arms out towards everyone, trying to get everyone to calm down, while Jones and Dernier ran towards Dugan to check on him.

“Everyone, stand down _now!_ ” Morita shouted at the soldiers. “It was just a small dispute that got too heated, lower your weapons!”

The soldiers all appeared reluctant to lower their weapons, but they finally did as they were commanded. The only person who didn’t lower their weapon was Tony who still had his gauntlet raised towards Dugan and his eyes burning with rage. When Morita finally managed to get the soldiers to lower their weapons, he turned to Tony and saw that he did not do the same.

“Tony, that means you too, they won’t hesitate to shoot you if you do it again.”

With great reluctance, Tony finally lowered his hand, his eyes not once leaving Dugan. Jones, Dernier, and another soldier were already trying to help Dugan up by the time this happened, shrugging them off as they tried to. Once Dugan managed to get himself up and dusted himself off, he gave Tony a murderous glare.

“What in the _hell_ is going on out here?” came a pissed off voice.

Everyone turned to the sound of the voice and saw the Major who was red-faced and did not look happy in the least.

“It’s just a small dispute, Major, don’t worry about it,” Morita responded.

“Did I touch a nerve, Tin Man?” Dugan shouted at Tony. Morita turned and glared at him, and Dugan saw it, but it did not deter him. “Just admit you are a HYDRA spy and be done with it, it will be easier on all of us.”

“Sergeant Dugan!” the Major yelled in a warning tone, but he was interrupted by Tony who yelled at Dugan back.

“Since you _fucking_ care to know, Thanos was someone that not even the Red Skull could defeat even if he tried, and he was more powerful and crazy than what you are facing right now. Be fucking grateful that you have never met someone like him, and I hope that this universe never has to face that kind of threat _ever!_ ”

He then turned around, walking away and leaving the soldiers confused as to who Tony was talking about. There was a bit of silence in the air as things were tense when Tony walked away. It wasn’t until Tony was a safe distance that the Major turned to Dugan.

“Sergeant Dugan, in my tent _now_.”

He demanded it in such a dangerously calm tone, and Dugan knew that he was in trouble when his superior spoke to him in that kind of tone. Deciding it was better to just let the Major yell at him or take whatever disciplinary action he decided, Dugan followed him to his tent. Once they were there and the Major demanded everyone in the tent to leave to which they scattered out of there like the devil was chasing them, he turned to Dugan and released all his fury on him.

“ _What_ in the _fucking hell_ is wrong with you, Sergeant?!” he yelled. “I know you’re going through a lot by barely holding this army together and trying to follow in the footsteps of Captain Rogers, but that is no excuse for your behavior!”

“I know, sir, and I apologize for my behavior, but I think that Stark’s relative, if that is even who he is, is a spy for HYDRA,” Dugan replied.

“I doubt that HYDRA would have sent in a spy to try to infiltrate us to a city that they had plans on destroying nor would they know that we were going to be there,” the Major snapped out. “HYDRA has yet to find us nor keep track of our movements in the years since we went into hiding. You need to think with your head, Sergeant, you’re letting your anger and grief cloud your judgment!”

“With all due respect, sir, I don’t think I am.”

“Oh, you don’t, do you?” the Major replied sarcastically. “Your actions are telling me otherwise!”

“It’s not that, sir.”

“Then tell me, what is causing you to turn a potential ally into our enemy?!”

“Because I have a feeling that he’s hiding something from us, sir. This guy shows up out of the blue in the middle of a massacre and claims to be related to Stark and is holding onto advanced weaponry with the suit he is wearing and we’re just supposed to trust him like that? I’m not buying it! He’s hiding something from us, sir, I just know it.”

“And what proof do you have other than a ‘feeling’?”

Dugan opened his mouth to say something in response, but then closed it back up when he realized that he didn’t have any other proof other than his instinct. The Major was still not fully aware of who Tony really was, so he did not know the entire crazy story Tony told Dugan and the rest of the Commandos, but he had to keep mum about it until they were back at the base where they can discuss more in private what Tony told them. When Tony was telling the story of who he was and where he came from and how he knew Steph, Dugan could not help but notice that he was holding back on certain information, like how he was about to say a name but said instead how it was an assassin of HYDRA who had killed his parents. The Major, though, did not have all of that information and Dugan could not discuss it with him since they were out in the open and not every soldier in their unit had clearance with Project Rebirth. Some of these soldiers were from other rebel divisions who were recruited into the SSR division after Schmidt had won the war, so there were things that could not be discussed out in the open.

With that being said, it made him realize that he looked like a paranoid fool in front of his superior and even the entire unit, and he bowed his head in embarrassment at that. He shook his head no as a way to answer his superior’s question before answering it verbally.

“No, sir, I don’t…”

“Well, then, Sergeant, I’m going to need you to show me proof than just a mere feeling that you have,” the Major replied. “You are right this guy could be a potential enemy, and you are an idiot if you think we’re not going to take any precautions because of it; however, he could also be a potential ally, and you are screwing up that allyship by accusing him of being a spy over a mere feeling that you have! Do you want to win this war or not, Sergeant?”

“Yes, sir, I do.”

“Then I suggest you keep that temper and that mouth of yours in check! This guy could be our chance of turning the tide of this never-ending war and getting the captain back, but we may lose that chance if you keep aggravating this Tony fella like that. So keep that trap of yours shut or I’ll have you thrown in the brigg for disorderly conduct once we get back to base, do I make myself clear, Sergeant?”

“Yes, sir…” Dugan muttered.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you clearly, say that one more time.”

“Sir, yes, sir!”

“That’s better. Now go wake everyone else in the encampment, make sure that everyone eats something before we head out in the next fifty minutes. Who knows when these poor people will get their next decent meal?”

Dugan saluted his superior before walking out of the tent to go do as he was told. As he did, Tony watched him with a pissed off look on his face as he leaned up against a tree, sipping on his breakfast out of a bowel. He was pretty pissed off that Dugan had once again accused him of being a HYDRA spy, but if he was being honest with himself, he was also pissed about something else as well.

Ever since finding out that Dugan, the guy who accused him of being a HYDRA spy, was a Howling Commando, he felt excited that he got to meet the men that he always heard from his father, but also he had the crushing realization that Dugan did not like him much. He was hoping to try starting over with someone that he looked to as a childhood hero, but it just became painfully obvious that was not going to happen. Granted, Tony could have handled that better, but if there were things he was sensitive about, it was Thanos and HYDRA. The Timothy Dugan that Tony knew, the one that he grew up hearing about so much from his father and even met him a couple of times in his youth, was someone who was warm and open, he even gave Tony some gifts that were his favorites and he still kept. He was also noble and a bit of a jokester, but the one in this universe was nothing like the one Tony knew: he was more harsh, angry, and had trust issues, nothing like the gentle giant he was described to be. It was disappointing to Tony to know that his childhood hero had turned into an asshole in this universe.

He took a sip of his breakfast bowl and made a disgusted face. They were serving something different: something that looked like an animal stew, but whoever made it needed a serious lesson in cooking. It tasted awful! But he continued to eat it, even though it did not taste very great, it was better than to eat nothing at all. His experience from nearly starving after being in space for days had taught him to at least be grateful with the food he was given, and this was no different.

Looking to his left, he saw Morita walking towards him with a bowl of stew of his own. At least there was one Commando who didn’t think he was a HYDRA spy and that Tony could relate to. Or if he really did think Tony was a spy, he didn’t speak it outloud. He stood next to Tony and they both stood there in silence, eating out of their bowls. Tony could already feel what Morita was going to say, so he spoke up before he could.

“If you’re expecting me to go up and apologize to your buddy, it’s not going to happen.”

Instead of telling him to go apologize to Dugan like Tony expected, Morita just sighed and said, “I know that he seems like an asshole, and I will admit, he and I used to not get along, but he really is a great guy deep down. He is just… _frustrated_ like the rest of us are.”

“So am I, I rather be out there looking for Steph and finding our way back home, but instead, I’m stuck here with you guys, being accused of being a spy for the same organization that killed my parents. Not that I don’t enjoy being in the company of a Howling Commando or anything…”

Tony added that last part when he realized he made it sound as if he didn’t like the Howling Commandos—save for one at the moment—when that was far from the truth. Morita seemed to have understood Tony’s frustration, for he was not offended by Tony’s words and just shrugged in response.

“Look, I believe you when you say that you aren’t a HYDRA spy, no person would go off the way you have if they were,” Morita said. “I’m also willing to believe you when you say that you are Howard’s son. If not his son, then maybe a distant relative. Everything you say and do reminds me of him, but with the others and everything else you have told us, they’re not so sure if they’re ready to believe that. You can’t blame Dugan for believing you are a spy for HYDRA. You basically came out of nowhere when you fell from the sky and crashed into the building we found you in and then claimed to be Howard Stark’s son from an alternative universe. If I was Dugan, I’d immediately think you were a spy too, but I’m not Dugan. I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and so are others, but there are still those who are wary of you and don’t know if they can trust you. We’re in the middle of a war that seems to be hopeless and never-ending, and our experience in this war has taught us to be wary of others.”

Tony could see the logic in that, he supposed, but it still frustrated him to know that people lacked faith in him. He wasn’t sure what else to say or do to get everyone to believe him. More importantly, to have Dugan believe he wasn’t a spy for HYDRA. Then he thought over some of the words Morita said and gave him a look as if he was keen on knowing something.

“That thing you said earlier about me falling from the sky, is that how you guys found me?” he asked.

Morita nodded in response, confirming Tony’s question.

“During the siege, there was an anomaly that was going on in the sky,” he explained. “Dugan, Dernier, and I were right under it when it appeared, and something came out of the anomaly and crashed-landed into a building, the same one where we found you.”

“This anomaly, what did it look like?”

“I couldn’t really describe it to you, but man, it was out of this world! I think it even took HYDRA by surprise ‘cause I could hear their radios going off through the channel all surprised and shit at what they were seeing. Even they had no idea what it was!”

Tony thought over Morita’s words with fascination. If there was an anomaly when he was thrown into this universe, then that could possibly mean only one thing: a portal. If Doctor Doom sent him and Steph here, it was possible for Tony and Steph to open up that portal and find a way home. How he was going to figure that out, he did not know. First things first, he needed to find Steph before he could figure out how to find a way to open that portal, he just hoped that wherever she was that she was nowhere near the Red Skull and was out of harm's way.

“Before we get to the base, we are gonna have to take precautions with you,” Morita said, interrupting his thoughts. “I hope you understand, it is just to be on the safe side until we’re sure we can trust you.”

“As long as it doesn’t involve you guys confiscating my suit, I have no problem with it,” Tony replied. “I don’t want anyone touching my suit.”

Morita smirked at that before saying, “Eat up here pretty quickly, we have to get going very soon.”

Tony downed the rest of his animal stew when Morita left. While he drank the rest of it, he thought to himself how much he really wanted a cup of coffee right now. His head was beginning to pound, but he had to get over the fact that he was not going to get one and probably not for sometime in a while. After downing the rest of his vile breakfast, he started helping break down the encampment, particularly assisting in the infirmary tent and with the civilians in any way that he could. There were some people who did not make it, and these were buried and a prayer was said in their honor after most of the encampment was broken down.

By the time the encampment was completely broken down, the sky was beginning to turn a lighter shade of blue than it was previously and they were already heading northwest towards Poland. On the orders of the major, Tony was walking in front of the group as their defense in case they ran into HYDRA and were attacked, so he kept his Iron Man suit on the entire time they walked. The Commandos were up front too, so Dugan was there as well, but he did not even acknowledge Tony or look his way. It was very obvious to Tony that Dugan’s superior gave him lip about his attitude earlier, for he had not once accused Tony of being a HYDRA spy since that morning, only looking and talking to Tony when he had to. Tony supposed that was better than him not talking to him at all, even if he was mildly annoyed by Dugan barking orders at him.

Little Anya and Dmitry were still around, they were in the middle of the group with their mother who Tony recently found out her name was Irina and the rest of the remaining civilians. During the walk, Anya would be carried by either her mother or another civilian or soldier who took pity on the worn-out mother. Both children expressed a desire to go up to the front of the group to be with Tony, but they did not put up much of a fuss when they were told no, understanding that it was too dangerous for them to be in front of the group in the case they were attacked by HYDRA.

The group walked for hours, or that’s what it seemed like to Tony, making sure to keep away from the roads and clearings. On the way to the border of Poland, they had to stop and hide a few times whenever a HYDRA patrol plane would come by, and they would wait for a little bit to make sure the pilot did not see them before finally moving on. The sun was already halfway up in the sky when they reached the border of Poland and came across the Polish rebel division. It was here that the SSR division had to part ways with the civilians, taking Tony with them. When Anya realized this, she had cried and clung onto Tony like her life depended on it and no amount of tugging from her mother would get her to let go of him.

“ _Please don’t go, Mr. Iron Man!_ ” Anya begged him in Russian. “ _Please come with us!_ ”

“ _Anya, please…_ ” Irina said in a gentle but stern tone. She attempted to tug her daughter away again, but then Tony stopped her by raising a hand.

“No, it is alright,” he said to her. “Would it be alright if I have a moment alone with your daughter real quick?”

The mother gave her consent by nodding, and she walked a couple of feet away towards her son and the Polish soldiers so that Tony and Anya could talk privately. Once she walked away, Tony turned his attention to Anya and crouched down so that he was eye-level with her, speaking to her in a gentle tone in her native language.

“ _Anya, I wish I could go with you, but I am needed with the soldiers over there_ ,” he explained, pointing over to the SSR division.

“ _But what about us? My brother and I need you too! Who will protect us if HYDRA attacks us?_ ”

“ _They will protect you_ ,” Tony replied, pointing to the Polish soldiers. “ _And so will your mother and your brother, he did a good job doing that back in Kiev. Do you remember that?_ ”

Tears were still running down her face and she rubbed her eyes, but Anya nodded through her tears to tell him that she remembered. Tony lifted a hand and wiped her tears away, and he did not see it but a look of clarity came on Irina’s face when she saw him do that.

“ _I am not the only superhero out there_ ,” Tony continued. “ _Everyone who is fighting against HYDRA are heroes too, and I know that these soldiers will do anything to keep you and your family safe to the best of their ability. I have to go with the other soldiers to help them with the war, can you understand that?_ ”

Anya nodded before looking down at the ground, saying quietly, “ _I’m just scared…_ ”

Tony looked at her with understanding, knowing exactly how she was feeling. He just did not know how to relieve her fear, for there was no guarantee of anything. Before he could do or say anything, Morita approached them.

“Come on, Tony, we have to get going.”

Tony nodded and then turned his attention back to Anya.

“ _I have to get going, but I want to tell you something before I do_ ,” he began. “ _It’s okay to be scared, even a superhero like me can get scared at times, but great heroes face their fears even when they are scared. So, whenever you get scared, just remember to take a deep breath and face your fears when you’re ready, okay?_ ”

Anya nodded in response. When Morita nudged Tony again, indicating they had to get going, the latter decided to end the conversation with Anya. Picking her up, he carried her back to her family and handed her to Irina who took her in her arms, holding her on her hip.

“ _Take care, little one_ ,” Tony said to Anya as he patted her head and smiled down at Dmitry, ruffling his hair. He bade the whole family well and turned to leave when Irina called out to him in English.

“Your child, what was their name?” she asked him.

Tony looked at her in surprise, wondering how she was able to tell. ‘ _Mother’s intuition, no doubt,_ ’ he thought. He was always amazed at how mothers had that kind of power. He sighed as he thought over the first time he held his child with a bit of a blissful smile on his face before turning to Irina and answering her question.

“Natasha, her name is Natasha…”

Irina gave him a sad smile.

“That’s a beautiful name, she must’ve been a beautiful girl,” she said.

Tony realized that Irina must have thought that he had lost his daughter to this war and that was the reason why she was giving him that look of sympathy. He couldn’t really contradict her, so he just remained quiet and nodded.

“I hope you see her again one day…”

Tony hoped so too, and he once again nodded and bade Irina and her family well before walking away to the SSR division. As he did, he began to feel a slight fear for his and Stephanie’s daughter’s safety and hoped that she was okay. He trusted the team to be able to handle Doctor Doom on their own, but he still could not help but worry over her.

“You ready now?” Morita asked, and Tony nodded in response.

“Good ‘cause we wasted precious time because of you,” Dugan snapped out. “Let’s move out, we have to meet Howard at the pick-up location.”

Tony gritted his teeth in anger, but kept his temper in check this time as he let Dugan walk away unscathed.

“I am going to kill him if he keeps that shit up,” he muttered darkly.

“I’d prefer if you didn’t,” Morita said, obviously hearing him. “He may be an asshole at times, but he’s still my buddy. Come on, let’s go meet your dad. It’s gonna be like having a family reunion, except without your dad knowing!”

Tony rolled his eyes at that but followed the Commandos and the SSR division to this pick-up location. It was another couple of hours or so until the group came to the edge of a clearing, and in that clearing was what looked like an abandoned airway, and it was here that Tony was asked to take off his suit until they reached one of the buildings in the abandoned airway.

“You got a red and gold suit on,” Jones said to him. “You stick out like a sore thumb, and we’ll be caught the moment a HYDRA patrol plane comes by and spots you.”

It made Tony uncomfortable, but he could understand Jones’ logic behind that, so he walked across the clearing without his suit on until they reached one of the buildings in the airway. Once they were all safely inside in one of the buildings with some outside keeping look out, Tony’s suit expanded one more, putting it back on, but keeping his helmet off for the time being. He looked around the inside of the building and saw that there were planes still here, but they were old and rusted, probably from not being used or taken care of since no one was here to look after them. Looking at the side of the plane, he could see a symbol that was faded, but he knew what that symbol was. He’s been in enough history classes to know what it was.

“This airway once belonged to the Nazis, didn’t it?” Tony asked Morita when he approached him and stood by his side. Morita nodded to answer his question. “What happened after HYDRA won? I’d imagine that those who were most loyal to Hitler would not put up with HYDRA without a fight…”

“You’d be surprised at how many in the Nazi party took up on HYDRA’s cause,” Morita replied. “Nazi-Germany and other Axis powers were fighting a war that they were losing and many people were fed-up with the fighting, of the starvation. Schmidt enticed them with ending all of that once he won the war. Granted, some people, like the Allies fought harder than others, but they eventually gave up or had to go into hiding like we did, live to fight another day.”

“Wiping out 50% of the worldwide population with an infinity stone will probably make most people too scared to even fight back anyway,” Tony muttered.

“A what?”

“The Tesseract, I meant the Tesseract,” Tony corrected, realizing his mistake. He hoped Morita did not try to pry for more information, and he was worried that he really was going to as he looked to Morita and saw him giving him a perplexing look.

“Try to relax,” Mortia said instead, making Tony sigh with relief internally, “maybe catch up some sleep while we wait on your dad.”

But Tony found himself unable to go to sleep, he didn’t want to, afraid he might have another nightmare about Thanos if he did, so he stayed awake. An hour or so went by with the sun setting, indicating that it was either late afternoon or early evening, and the SSR division and Tony were still at the pick-up location. Tony was sitting down, leaning against the wall while the Commands were either sitting or standing around him. For the past thirty minutes, Dugan had been pacing back and forth with an irritated and impatient look on his face with a hint of worry in his eyes, and it was beginning to drive Tony crazy!

“Damn, where is Stark? He is late,” Dugan said.

“You are surprised by this?” Tony spoke up. “My father has never been one to be on time for anything. I should know, I got that from him.”

Dugan responded by glaring at him before going back to walking back and forth, expressing his concern of Howard Stark’s tardiness to the others.

“What if HYDRA patrol caught him and took his plane down?”

“Dum Dum, relax,” Morita said, “he is just a few minutes late, he probably had to take a detour because of HYDRA patrol. Just relax, these things take time and Stark knows how careful he has to be when flying out during the day.”

Dugan did not seem to listen and was still worried as he walked back and forth again, and Tony closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. With Dugan’s constant walking back and forth, it was making Tony dizzy and he was half-tempted to trip him just to get him to stop. It was then that a sound was heard in the distance: it sounded like a plane and it was coming in fast from the sound of it. Apparently, Tony was not the only one one that heard it, for the Commandos and some of the soldiers looked out towards the entrance of the building.

“HYDRA patrol…” Dugan whispered. “Everybody, get into positions! It’s HYDRA patrol!”

He shouted this to all the soldiers, more so to the soldiers outside keeping watch, and the soldiers who were outside began scrambling around in order to hide and get into positions, trying to prepare a machine gun in case they had to try and fire the HYDRA plane down. Dugan and Morita ran out to provide cover, and Tony meant to follow them to help, but was stopped when Jones held him back.

“I think it’s best if you stay in here,” he said. “You’ll be easily spotted if you go out there.”

“But I—”

“Trust me, it’s better if you stay in here, you’ll know when we need your help if we’re attacked.”

Tony had to resist the urge to punch the wall in frustration. He could see the logic behind it, but it still frustrated him that he couldn’t help. He tried to remind himself, though, that this was a very particular situation and he needed to be cautious since he was now basically a fugitive in this universe. Is this what Steph had to deal with when she became a fugitive? Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself down and his helmet went on, going to the entrance of the building, creeping around the corner of the entrance to see outside but still staying inside so that he wasn’t spotted. He could see a black plane that was very low to the ground, moving very fast, and it wasn’t very long when the plane flew past them.

Everyone waited with baited breath as they waited to see if they had been spotted. Tony looked to Jones who was on the opposite side of the entrance and was holding onto his gun tightly and watching the plane go by with fear in his eyes. Tony could feel his repulsors humming, ready to provide defense if the plane came back to attack them, but then the sound of the radio went off, nearly startling everyone, and a carefree voice spoke through it.

“You guys seem tense,” the voice said. “Relax, boys, it’s me.”

“Stark, you son of a bitch!” Dugan nearly shouted as he got up from his hiding spot.

Tony looked at Dugan in shock when he realized which Stark he was referring to, even though no one could see his expression since he had his helmet on, and realizing who that carefree voice belonged to, the power of his repulsors dying down once he did. He remained frozen to his spot as he realized that he was going to once again meet his father face-to-face. The last time he saw his father was in 1970 during the Time Travel Heist, and he was 53 years old at the time, so he was a little closer to Tony’s age, but this time, he was meeting his father who was half of his age now.

When he met his 53 year old father, he met a man who was still the same charming Howard Stark but he was also scared as he did not know what to do in how to raise his unborn son, not knowing he was revealing those fears to his grown-up son. What would his father be like in this universe? Tony has heard stories of how his father was often arrogant and hedonistic and very much of a ladies man in his younger years, much like Tony was in his youth. Would he be anything like that or would he be a cold-hearted bastard, hardened by a never-ending war that they were losing? Or was he just less cocky and more cautious because of the war? Tony just wondered what the Howard Stark was like being a rebel and a fugitive for a world-wide empire.

The sound of Howard’s plane swinging back around came to Tony, bringing him out of his thoughts. Looking out of the door, he could see Howard’s plane coming onto the runway and landing onto the ground. It was a while before the plane slowed down and was brought back around to the front of the building, coming to a full and complete stop where they could see the back of the plane. While all of this is happening, the soldiers are cheering and jumping for joy with some looking at the plane as if it was their savior. In this case, it probably was their savior considering that it was more than likely it was safer at the SSR’s hidden base than out there.

Some of the soldiers ran towards the plane, and Tony was now standing outside of the building, keeping his distance. Morita approached him and patted him on the shoulder.

“Ready to meet your maker?” he asked Tony.

It was a bad attempt at a joke since Howard literally made Tony, and the latter would have made fun of Morita for it, but he found himself unable to as he realized that he was going to meet his father and the latter would once again not know who he really is. Morita could sense Tony’s brooding attitude when he saw that Tony did not react to his joke at all, not really moving or looking towards his way, he just stared straight ahead at the plane. Morita could not see the look on Tony’s face since he had his helmet on, but he could only imagine what Tony’s face looked like and how he must be feeling right now about to meet his father face-to-face. That is, if Tony really is the son of Howard Stark from another universe and is who he says he is.

The tail of the plane slowly opened, and everyone was waiting in anticipation as if waiting to see who was inside the plane, even though they already knew who was inside the plane. Even Tony knew who was in there, but he could feel his heart racing and pounding against his chest as he watched the tail open. Once the tail was fully opened, a person could be seen walking down the walkway of the tail. The person who walked down the tail was wearing a pilot’s uniform with some boots, a pilot hat, and goggles on top of his head. Tony could tell that the person was male with broad shoulders and was tall. The outfit he wore was dirty and looked like it could use a wash or two, and the boots he was wearing were worn and faded out. His face was smeared with dirt and oil, but even with that and through the HUD, Tony could see that he had the same skin complexion as him, had black hair that was sticking up when the man took off his hat, brown eyes, and a small mustache that was kept trimmed.

When the man stepped down the walkway of the tail, he had no smile on his face, but as soon as he looked down at the soldiers, he gave them a cocky grin. It was the same cocky grin that Tony always had and would often see on his father on the rare chance he smiled before he died.

_“You know, you and your father have the same smile,” Stephanie told him once after the first time they met, and Tony could see the tears prickling in her eyes before she looked away._

‘ _It’s him_ ,’ he thought. He did not need FRIDAY to run a bio scan on the pilot because he already knew. He already knew that the man standing in the plane was Howard Stark, his father.

“Hiya, fellas,” Howard said to the soldiers with the cocky grin still on his face, “need a lift home?”

* * *

Something was definitely wrong with the serum, or at least the super strength part of the serum. Steph realized this the moment after she was locked in her room last night.

All night, Steph was trying to escape from her room and get away from this nightmare, but she was not able to and it began to make her panic and she had an anxiety attack in the early morning. She tried almost everything she could think of: she opened the window and tried bending the iron bars but was unable to, tried breaking down the door but it would not budge and was only able to put a small dent on it from her heels, used a bobby pin to unlock the door but she was shocked to a point that she was thrown away from the door when she did that. She tried once again to bend the iron bars, but it took all of her strength to even bend it slightly. By the time she was even able to bend them, she was sweating and exhausted from exertion.

‘ _What is wrong?! Is this what Schmidt knew about the serum when I said I could take on an entire unit?_ ’ Steph thought.

After believing that her super strength was gone, Steph began to feel herself have an anxiety attack and she was panicking to a point where she couldn’t breath. She was feeling helpless and trapped the way she felt almost five years ago and that feeling scared her, she absolutely _hated_ feeling trapped and helpless. It wasn’t until Steph grabbed onto her locket that she was able to calm herself down and even out her breathing, being able to think more clearly once that happened. At first, she thought her super strength was gone, but after calming down and thinking more clearly, she realized it wasn’t gone, just weakened. If it was truly gone, then she wouldn’t have been able to bend the bars, even if it was only slightly, or put a couple of dents on the door.

Eventually, she became so tired from exerting herself and from the anxiety attack that she fell asleep against the wall near the open window. She got terrible sleep, though, not just because she did not go to sleep until late but because she kept having nightmares, and they were making her wake throughout the night and into the early mornings. Her nightmares consisted of either of Doctor Doom destroying the universe and harming her daughter or of Thanos. She did not know which nightmares were worse: either the ones about her daughter or Thanos. The ones about her daughter left her feeling scared for her daughter’s safety, even more so since she had no idea what was going on or if anyone was safe in her own universe. The ones of Thanos left her shaken, though, as she often still struggled with the memories of battling against Thanos and his minions both in Wakanda and at the Avengers’ facility.

Eventually, Steph moved from the floor to the couch that was in front of the fireplace and slept there. She would have slept in the bed since the bed was most likely more comfortable, but decided to sleep on the couch instead. She did not want to sleep in the same bed that Schmidt had most likely violated her in numerous times. Even then, though, she still kept waking up throughout the hours from nightmares. She really wished that Tony was with her, he always made it easier for her to sleep whenever he was around. Even if they weren’t exactly together, his presence was just comforting and he helped ease her fears after waking up from her nightmares, just as she did for him.

It was around 7 a.m. when the sound of the door unlocking came, and the door opened with Amalia coming in with a tray in her hands and on the tray was a cup of steaming hot tea and coffee. The door is shut behind her after she walks in, and she was surprised when she did not find her mistress in her bed but found her instead sleeping on the couch, wondering why she was sleeping there. Walking towards Steph’s sleeping figure, she placed the tray on a coffee table in front of the couch and tried waking Steph up. As she did, she saw her mistress’ face scrunched up in fear as if she was having a nightmare and muttering something in her sleep.

“No…Thanos…”

‘ _Who or what is Thanos?_ ’ Amalia wondered. She put the thought to the back of her mind for right now and tried to wake Stephanie up.

“ _Herrin?_ ” she called out to Steph, gently nudging her to wake up.

When Steph did not wake up, Amalia nudged her a little harder and called out to her a little louder. It took a couple more tries, but Amalia finally managed to get Steph to wake up. When she finally did, Steph woke up with a start, sitting up and gasping as she did, her eyes wide with fear and getting out of whatever nightmare she was having. She nearly hit Amalia as she woke up, making Amalia having to move away in order to prevent herself from being hit. Breathing heavily, Steph looked around frantically as if trying to figure out where she was until her eyes landed on Amalia and was able to remember what happened yesterday and relaxed slightly.

“Did I hurt you?” Steph asked her in a concerned tone.

Amalia, who had a hand over her heart and was looking at Steph in concern, shook her head no. “No, I was just frightened and nothing more,” she said. “Were you having a nightmare, ma’am? You haven’t had a nightmare in some time now…”

Steph did not respond to Amalia’s question as she rubbed her eyes and swung her legs off the couch ‘til her feet touched the floor. She was still tired after getting such crappy sleep last night and now has to go through whatever torture Schmidt had in mind for her, unless she found a way to escape before that even happened.

“What time is it?” she asked Amalia instead of answering her question.

“It is 7:18, ma’am, Kaiser Schmidt and Dr. Zola are down in the small dining room eating breakfast already,” Amalia replied. “I was given strict orders to bring your coffee and tea to your room.”

“But no food?”

Amalia shook her head no to confirm Steph’s answer, and Steph thought to herself how she should not even be surprised by that. As hungry as she was, though, she had too much pride to beg for food to the likes of Schmidt, but it was going to take a lot for her to ignore the rumbling in her stomach that was happening right now. She can’t remember the last time she ate and she could feel her hunger coming in full force that she could eat enough for five people. Amalia handed her the cup of tea, bringing Steph out of her thoughts on food temporarily.

“Here, drink your tea, ma’am,” she said. “After you are done, you can then have your coffee.”

Steph would personally rather have something with more substance, but she couldn’t really do much with that, so she just took the cup of tea from Amalia and took a couple of sips out of the cup. As she drank her tea, Steph could see Amalia looking at her rather apprehensively as if she wanted to say something to her but was too scared to do it. She looked at Steph like this the entire time she drank her tea, and Steph was waiting for her to say something to her, but she didn’t. This made it very obvious that the girl was conditioned to only speak when she was spoken to. Steph was going to have to remedy that.

“Alright, what is wrong?” Steph asked after she set her tea cup down when she was finished and looked at Amalia in the eye. “You keep looking at me as if you want to say something. If there is something on your mind, just say it. You can speak as open and honest with me as possible nor do you need my permission to speak when Schmidt is not around, I won’t punish you or anything like that for it.”

Amalia looked towards the closed door with a nervous look on her face as if expecting to see it open any time soon and looked back at Steph. She stepped up to Steph a little closer and got down on her knees in front of her, making Steph look down at her.

“I heard Kaiser Schmidt and Dr. Zola talking during breakfast just now,” she spoke in a low tone, “Kaiser Schmidt plans on putting you on the machine.”

“I already knew that, what of it?” Steph asked.

“It is more than just a regular discipline, ma’am, Kaiser Schmidt suspects you are hiding something, just as I told what would happen. He plans on using it as a way to get you to confess what it is you are hiding from him.”

Steph began to worry a little bit after hearing that. It wasn’t because she was worried about being tortured because she’s been tortured before, it was the fact that Schmidt was already suspecting she was hiding something. She thought she had managed to deflect some suspicion, but she guessed she assumed wrong if he was talking about torturing her to get information out of her. She _could not_ give out any information on what was going on with her or let him know about Tony, he would be in danger if she revealed anything about him.

“Schmidt can try to get me to talk, but I refuse to give him anything,” Steph said as she got up and walked over to the open window and looked out at the view that she could see through the bars. “He underestimates my willpower.”

“And I think you underestimate the power of the machine,” Amalia said and she got up from the floor, walking towards Steph until she was a couple of steps away from her. “Ma’am, I have witnessed you go on the machine time and time again, and you come out a different person every time. Please reconsider, ma’am, you don’t know what it is like and you don’t want to know! You need to do something to change Kaiser Schmidt’s mind about putting you on there.”

“What do you expect me to do?” Steph asked as she turned back around to face Amalia. “As you said yourself, he already suspects something is wrong with me and that I’m hiding something and plans on torturing me until I confess to whatever it is I am hiding. What can I do to make him change his mind about putting me on the machine?”

It was quiet between them as Amalia appeared to think for a moment and then looked at Steph with a rather uneasy expression on her face.

“There is one thing that might work, but you may not like it…”

“What is it?”

Amalia blushed and looked away for a couple seconds and looked back up at Steph. She took a couple steps closer to her, whispering something in her ear. Steph gasped when Amalia did, backing away from her and looking at her with wide eyes and a disgusted look on her face, shaking her head no.

“No, no way!” she cried. “I’m not doing that! I’d rather be tortured all day than to do…than to do…”

She couldn’t even finish the sentence because just saying it or even thinking it made her sick to her stomach.

“It may be the only way, I know you’re willing to not give up any information and be on there for days, but if you really want to find this Tony Stark, this may be the only way to do that. You won’t be able to find him if you are stuck on the machine for days, and you may not even have the energy to do so once you are off of there.”

Steph only shook her head in response.

“I’m sorry, Amalia, I can’t do it,” she said, “I won’t do it!”

Amalia sighed and looked down to the floor in defeat.

“Then I am sorry, ma’am, there is nothing I can do for you,” she said as she looked back up at Steph. “I wouldn’t be able to convince him, I am just a scullery maid, and I have little value to this world, except to serve. This is the only way to convince him to not put you on the machine and possibly deflect suspicion on you, but I can understand why you would have reservations for it. He’s not my husband, but I have seen the way he has treated you and hurt you throughout the years since I’ve been here, he’s not very gentle nor does he care to be.”

Steph just stared at Amalia as she told her all of this. At first, Steph was angry that Amalia wouldn’t help her, but after hearing the way the young maid talk about herself, Steph felt almost sorry for the girl. She felt sorry that the young girl did not think she had any other purpose than to serve a madman and his wife whose hand that he forced. Schmidt must’ve abused her and beat her up to a point where she believed she did not have any other purpose and thought so lowly of herself, and her fear of Schmidt must’ve outweighed her willingness to help Steph from being tortured. She was about to contradict the girl and tell her she had more value to this world than what she believed, but then Amalia touched her bare arm, the red cardigan no longer on her, before she could.

“You’re very grimy, ma’am, I’m gonna draw you a bath,” she said. “You should at least be a little comfortable and not dirty while you’re on there.”

Steph was about to tell her that there was nothing comfortable about torture, but Amalia had already turned on her heel and walked into the bathroom that was behind the folding screen. Not too long after that, she heard the sound of the water running. Alone with her thoughts as Amalia drew the bath for her, Steph sighed and ran her fingers through her hair in frustration, trying to figure out what to do.

For the first time in nearly thirteen years (70+ years if you count the time she was trapped in ice for nearly 70 years), she was at a disadvantage. She tried thinking of every possible situation where she could escape and find Tony, but all of those ideas went out of the window as she remembered that her super strength was weakened. With her super strength weakened, there was a possibility that other aspects of the serum were weakened as well, and all ideas she thought of could possibly result in broken bones or worse her death. Her recovery might be slower than usual, and she had no plans on staying here for very long. Maybe she should just go for Amalia’s suggestion if she really wanted to get out of here quicker and find Tony? But she knew that doing so would compromise everything that she believed in and who she was as a person.

She sighed once more as she thought of the predicament she was in and was at a loss of what to do. ‘ _What would Natasha do?_ ’ she thought.

It was an hour later that Schmidt and Zola were done with breakfast, and they were on their way out.

“You’ll continue working on the war machine, Dr. Zola,” Schmidt said. “I’m going to gather all my generals that are available and gather reports on what happened in Kiev.”

“Are the survivors of the unit going to be interrogated in Berlin at the main facility?”

“No, I gave orders for the survivors to be brought here to be interrogated, I want to keep this potential threat away from the public as much as possible, we don’t want the small-minded people to get any ideas…”

They were about to head out the door when they were stopped by Amalia who was coming down the stairs just as they were about to leave.

“Kaiser Schmidt?” she called out to him.

“Yes? What is it that you want, _dummes Mädchen?_ ” Schmidt snapped out. “I’m leaving now, so this better be important!”

“It is your wife, _mein Kaiser_ , she wishes to speak with you.”

“Now?”

“Yes, _Herr._ ”

A look of annoyance crossed Schmidt’s face, but he decided to humor his wife for a bit before she is taken to be disciplined.

“Wait here,” he commanded Zola, “I shouldn’t be too long.”

Schmidt walked up the stairs towards his wife’s room, hearing the maid offer Zola some refreshments while he waited as he did. Meanwhile, in Steph’s room, Steph was trying to calm herself for what she was about to do, taking deep breaths and trying to steady her erratic heartbeat. She was also trying her best to push down the guilt and disgust she felt for what she was about to do.

‘ _I hope the plan works, it_ **_has_ ** _to work_ ,’ she thought.

With her honed skills as a spy that she learned from not only Natasha but from SHIELD and the outfit she was wearing, the plan that she and Amalia came up with should work. The said outfit that Steph was wearing was hand-picked by Amalia who told her that it was one of Schmidt’s favorites of hers. The outfit was a standard 1940’s red dress that was long-sleeved and a V-shaped neckline with the hem of the dress ending just a couple of inches below the knees, and she was wearing a pair of red heels with it. Her hair was curled and half-way up that was held by a barrette made out of white diamonds and red rubies. She had a touch of make-up with foundation, light blush, and vivid red lipstick. Overall, Steph looked incredibly sexy, and she would turn heads if she was out in public. It was the reason why Steph had agreed to even wear the dress. She knew that, despite being a workaholic, Schmidt was still a man and he was not immune to the primal instinct when it came to a beautiful woman.

There was the sound of the door unlocking, and Stephanie tensed up as she turned towards the door, seeing it open and Schmidt stepping in. As soon as he stepped in and his eyes landed on her, he stopped for a moment, a look of surprise on his face as he looked her up and down before it turned into a bit of a leering gaze. Amalia was definitely smart in picking this dress, Steph thought to herself. If she had picked a dress, she would have most likely picked a more modest dress so that Schmidt wouldn’t leer at her so much. In order for this plan to work, though, she needed to wear something sexy in order to reel Schmidt in.

“Stephanie, what is it that you need?” he asked. “I have to get to my facility soon, so make this quick!”

Any other person would have cowered at the curt tone that Schmidt gave, but Steph was not any other person and it just annoyed her. She took a deep breath, though, as she tried to keep her tongue in check and prepared herself to do the most humiliating thing she has ever done in her life. She did not really want to go through this, but she had to swallow her pride and remind herself she was doing it for Tony and little Tasha. She took a couple of steps towards Schmidt, keeping her eyes low to the ground as Amalia instructed her to do so she could only see the intricate rug and the top of Schmidt’s boots.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking last night and I realized I was in the wrong,” she began. “I was disobedient and I embarrassed you in front of your men by speaking out of turn. I am sorry for disrespecting you like that, I only ask that you forgive me, even though I don’t deserve it.”

Steph did not once look up at Schmidt to see his reaction, but she knew that he was more than likely reveling in her submission. Schmidt does not move or say anything for a couple of minutes before he finally took a step closer to her, grabbing onto her chin forcefully and making her look up at him. Steph winced slightly at how rough he had grabbed her and wanted to show him that she would not let anyone handle her like that, but she had to continue to play the role of a submissive wife in order for this plan to work. She gave her best remorseful face when Schmidt forced her to look up at him, and she could see the triumphant and leering gaze in his eyes when she looked at him in the eye.

“I want you to show me how sorry you really are…”

Steph hesitated for a moment as she realized that this is the moment where she was going to do something that made her sick to her stomach. Swallowing the last bit of pride she had left, she took a couple of steps closer until there was almost no space between her and Schmidt. She could see the expression on his face, of how his face was clouded with desire but also satisfaction as if he had won something. Steph would have scoffed at the idea of that, but this plan could go either way, she just had to time it right so she wouldn’t have to go all the way with him.

Taking her time, Steph brought her hands on Schmidt’s chest that was covered by the black leather trench coat he was wearing and glided them up his chest until they were brought to his shoulders and caressing the nape of his neck, wrapping her arms around him. Using the hand at the nape of his neck, she pulled his head down until their lips touched, giving him a slow and gentle kiss.

The kiss Steph and Schmidt shared started out like that, but as the seconds went by and they continued to kiss, Schmidt started to get rougher and demanded more access to her mouth by licking and biting her bottom lip. Steph allowed Schmidt to take charge of the kiss, letting him have access to her mouth, and she could now feel Schmidt’s tongue gliding against hers. It took all of her willpower to not fight against him, her hands on his chest, about ready to push him away and slap him across the face, but she had to hold herself back. ‘ _Just a couple minutes longer, you can do this_ ,’ Steph thought once she was able to hold herself back. With each passing minute she kissed him, though, it was becoming very difficult to go through with this plan.

She tried thinking of kissing someone else, such as Tony, but it was a little difficult as she realized that Amalia was right: Schmidt was rough and did not care for being gentle. That was evident in the way he was kissing her and tugging at her hair rather painfully. Steph recalled all the times where Tony would get rough with her, more so when Steph asked him to, but he was all about passion rather than being rough whenever he kissed or made love to her. With Schmidt, it was more about control and dominating her than anything else, it reminded her of Brock who she played around with for a time before she began dating Tony and then she found out that Brock was a HYDRA agent. Just thinking about Brock brought some memories she did not want to think about and tried suppressing them by focusing all her attention on what she was doing right now, trying to imagine it was Tony’s tongue that was shoved down her throat and not Schmidt’s.

Suddenly, something flashed before Steph’s eyes…

_The Red Skull is looking down at her with a triumphant and lustful gaze in his eyes, pining Steph’s arms above her head. Steph was screaming as she thrashed against him, trying with all her might to push Schmidt off of her, but she couldn’t for some reason._

_“_ **_Please don’t…_ ** _” she heard herself begging him with tears rolling down her cheeks._

 _Schmidt only responded with an evil grin on his face and then said, “_ **_Now, you are mine._ ** _”_

Steph screamed when she saw that, and her crying out was enough to make Schmidt stop kissing her and look down at her in surprise. He had a slight look of irritation on his face, obviously annoyed that Steph interrupted their kissing, but his expression morphed into suspicion when he saw the look of panic and confusion on his wife’s face.

“Stephanie, are you alright?”

There was no concern in Schmidt’s tone that Steph could hear when he asked that. It took a moment or so before Steph was able to calm herself down, trying to swallow down the fear of what she just saw, and was able to answer Schmidt’s question.

“Yes, I’m fine, I think,” she said. “You just tugged at my hair a little too painfully, that is all…”

“Good,” Schmidt responded and then pulled her back into his embrace, surprising and scaring Steph at the same time as he did. “Now, to continue where we left off…”

He then crashed his lips against hers without warning, giving Steph no time to recover from whatever just happened with her. He kissed her more deeply and rougher than ever before, his hands roaming up and down her body that it made Steph sick to her stomach and she had to hold back a cry of disgust. Between feeling disgust, shame, and guilt for letting Schmidt touch her in this way to being shaken by what she just saw flash before her eyes, she wasn’t sure how much longer she could take this. ‘ _Come on, Amalia, hurry up!_ ’ she thought, her fear and adrenaline increasing with each moment she let Schmidt touch her. She cried out in pain when she felt Schmidt tug at the back of her head, forcing her to tilt her head back so that her neck and chest was more exposed to him, and Steph saw him leaned down and cried out once more when she felt him bite down on her neck and then lick the area where he bit her.

It was there that Steph had just about had enough. She did not care if Schmidt decided to put her on this machine and torture her, she could not take one more moment of Schmidt’s lips on her and laying his hands on her. Just as she was about to shove Schmidt away from her, though, there was the sound of someone knocking on the door, interrupting them. Steph had to hold back from breathing a sigh of relief, thanking the universe for the interruption, but it was clear that it annoyed Schmidt, for he made a noise in the back of his throat that made him sound irritated.

“ _Was ist es? Ich bin beschäftigt! (What is it? I am busy!)_ ” he shouted to whomever interrupted in an irate tone.

The irate tone should have been enough to scare whoever dared to interrupt them, but it was clear whoever interrupted them didn’t hear it, for the door opened with the sound of Zola’s voice coming through as he stepped in the room.

“Kaiser Schmidt, we are running late, we should leave soon if…”

He stopped mid-sentence when he realized he interrupted a rather intimate moment between Steph and Schmidt. That is, if you can even call it intimate, Steph certainly wouldn’t. Once Zola realized this, he had turned beet red and began stuttering out his next response, even more so when he saw the glare Schmidt was sending his way.

“I-I-I…. So sorry, I’ll just…just wait for you out-outside, Kaiser Schmidt.”

If it was any other situation, Steph would have laughed at how embarrassed Zola was at catching them in a rather “intimate” moment. There were plenty of times the team had caught her and Tony in intimate moments, but this was Schmidt she was talking about and there was nothing intimate about this. She would much rather take her knee where the sun don’t shine with Schmidt than let him hold her for one moment longer.

Zola finally left the room, and Schmidt turned his attention back to Steph. She felt scared for a moment, worried that Schmidt would just pick up from where he left off; instead of doing that, though, Schmidt just sighed in defeat.

“It looks like we’ll have to pick this up another time, _meine liebchen_ ,” he said and Steph sighed with relief internally. “I suppose you have learned your lesson and don’t need to be disciplined for now, I just have to let Dr. Zemo know. Perhaps he and Baron von Strucker can come over for dinner with their wives this weekend?”

Steph only nodded in response, feeling a little too relieved that this plan worked and also feeling a whole bunch of other emotions that were rendering her speechless.

“I am going to be late for dinner tonight, _liebchen_ , so don’t wait for me.”

“Is everything okay?” Steph asked him without even thinking.

Schmidt paused for a moment as he stared at her. Steph was worried she did the wrong thing by asking that, but then realized that the look she saw in his eyes was not anger but…worry? Steph had never seen that look in his eyes before, except for when she threw her shield at the Tesseract and knocked it out of the Tesseract Cradle on the Valkyrie, so she could tell that wherever was keeping him away from the house longer than usual had him worried and concerned. The longer he was away from her, though, the better.

“Everything is okay, do not fret too much, dear,” Schmidt finally said, “I just have some projects that I need to finish, so I’m going to be late tonight.”

Now that was a lie if Steph ever saw one, and she was a bad liar herself, so that was saying something. However, she was not going to push for any more information, it may give Schmidt more reason that something was wrong and change his mind about not putting her on the machine. Schmidt then tilted her chin up with two fingers, lifting her head up so that he could plant another kiss on her lips, and Steph had to hold herself back from leaning away from his touch. He finally broke the kiss, giving her a possessive gaze and caressing her cheek with his gloved hand.

“Until next time, _meine liebchen_.”

He turned and finally left the room, leaving the door open when he walked out. Steph could hear him talking to Zola, telling him that he was ready to leave, and she heard the sound of their footsteps leaving in the hallway. When she could no longer hear the sound of their footsteps anymore, that’s when Steph’s composure broke down and she fell down to her knees, shaking uncontrollably with tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘ _I did it, I can’t believe I did it_ ,’ she thought. She managed to fool Schmidt, but the way she did it made her feel so disgusted and ashamed of herself and it was also bringing back memories, memories that she tried so hard to not think about. Those memories were coming into the front of her mind, though, and the scared and helpless feeling she always felt whenever those memories resurfaced came back.

It was maybe about five or ten minutes later when Amalia walked into the room and saw Steph on the floor, shaking and weeping.

“ _Herrin!_ ” she cried and ran over to Steph’s side. “ _Geht es dir gut? (Are you alright?)_ ”

“I’ll be alright,” Steph replied after being quiet for a moment or two. Although, if she was being honest with herself, she felt as if she wasn’t going to be, but she had to remind herself that this will pass and that she _will_ be okay. She just wished that she was with Tony or anywhere but here, nowhere near Schmidt with the possibility of being violated and she wouldn’t be able to fight back, she wished she was back in her own world where she could hold her daughter in her arms right now and see all the faces of her team so that she can feel some measure of safety than this danger she was in right now.

“Here, let’s go lay you down on the bed, ma’am,” Amalia said as she attempted to help her up from the floor.

“No, lay me on the couch,” Steph said. “I don’t _ever_ plan on sleeping in that bed.”

Amalia paused for a moment before nodding in understanding and helped Steph up, leading her towards the couch. Only when Amalia had Steph lay down on the couch was Steph able to find her voice again.

“ _Never, ever_ suggest I do that again,” she said to Amalia, giving her a stern look.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Steph sighed as she laid her head back down, trying very hard not to think about past memories and the evil grin of the Red Skull that she saw in that vivid flash earlier.

“Our plan worked, he’s not putting me on the machine,” she said to Amalia, “but you were right about him not being gentle.”

She winced as she felt a sting on her neck. Lifting a hand to where she felt the sting, she could feel a bite mark where Schmidt had bit her earlier, and she hoped that she still had her regenerative abilities so that the mark would go away soon.

“Do you need a first aid kit, ma’am?”

“Please, and some food too, I’m starving right now.”

“How many courses would you like, ma’am?”

“Five.”

Amalia nodded before getting up to leave. “I’ll be back with the first aid kit and then I’ll get you some food.”

She finally left the room to go get the first aid kit, leaving Steph alone with her thoughts. Now that she had a moment alone, Steph thought over what happened during her make-out session with Schmidt, wondering what that flash was and why is it that it came up. Whatever it was, it brought out a feeling of helplessness and fear in her that she promised herself she would not feel again, and she could feel so much disgust and shame for what she did. What would Tony think of her if he ever found out what she did with Schmidt in order to get out of being tortured? Probably be so disgusted with her that he would never look at her the same again. The thought of that brought tears to Steph’s eyes, and she tried desperately to stop the tears from flowing, but with memories of the past and all the emotions that came with it, she could not stop the tears from falling.

‘ _Please, for the love of God, wake me up from this nightmare!_ ’ Steph screamed to herself inside her head, hoping that she will just wake up from this awful situation. She knew this was not a nightmare, though, that all of this was very real. With every minute that she was here, Steph did not feel safe, and she felt even more urgent to get out of this place as soon as possible. The urgency to leave this place was bringing in another anxiety attack for Steph, and she grabbed onto her locket to center herself once more and to even out her breathing. It was a while before she was finally able to calm herself down and by the time that happened, she had fallen asleep into a dreamless sleep, thanking the universe for giving her some relief from the nightmares that often plagued her.

* * *

All the soldiers and the Commandos were eager to get on the plane and leave as soon as possible. Tony could tell as they were all looking around the area up to the sky as if expecting a HYDRA plane to come around any minute, but he had to give credit to the Commandos: even when they were eager to get on the plane, they still kept things in order, making sure that no one ran up into the plane like a mob and having the wounded soldiers go in the plane first before anyone else. It was the Commandos, Tony, and the Major who got onto the plane last, and Tony was able to look into the face of his young father up close for the first time.

Ever since hearing and seeing his father’s arrival, Tony had not really said anything. All of the soldiers and most of the Commandos did not really notice, for they were just too glad and eager to be getting out of there, it was Morita who noticed Tony’s silence. Tony could tell, for he could see Morita sending him questioning glances. Whatever lingering questions he had on his mind, though, he did not ask them, and Tony was grateful for that. He just wanted a moment alone with his thoughts before he answered any questions Morita might have about the kind of relationship he had with his dad.

This was the second time Tony saw his father face-to-face, except he was now seeing him as a young man in a parallel universe. Tony knew him as a cold and calculating man, but as a young man, he was someone entirely different. Tony was often told how a young Howard Stark was very much like how Tony was when he was younger before his father settled down with Tony’s mother: cocky, flashy, and charismatic. Tony could definitely see the charisma in his father and still maintained some swagger, despite how dirty he looked; however, he also looked tired as if he had the whole weight of the world on his shoulders. When Tony went up the railway of the plane and stood right beside his father, he could see a bit of sadness in his eyes as if he lost someone very dear to him. Tony had kept on his Iron Man suit the entire time, so Howard was unable to see Tony’s face when Tony approached him and greeted him with a smile on his face.

“So, this is the famous Iron Man I’ve been hearing so much about already,” Howard said and then held out his hand for Tony to shake. “The name’s Howard, glad you showed up when you did.”

Tony did not respond at first and just stared at Howard through his helmet, remaining still as if frozen to the spot. The silence became rather awkward and prominent as the seconds passed by and Tony still didn’t take his father’s hand, and the latter was currently giving Tony a confused look for it.

“Is there a human or robot underneath that suit? If there is a robot underneath, then this is where you take my hand to shake it, it’s how humans introduce themselves to each other.”

Tony said nothing again at first for a couple more seconds until he finally took Howard’s hand and shook it. “It’s nice to meet you, Howard,” he said as he shook Howard’s hand.

“Alright, it’s nice to meet you too, Iron Man,” Howard said with a smile and then turned his head towards the front of the plane. “Close the tail!”

Someone responded to Howard’s command with a ‘yes, sir!’, and the tail began to close as they all walked off of the railway and into the plane with the Major walking ahead to check on the wounded.

“So, Iron Man, do you have a name that we can call you or should we just keep calling you Iron Man?” Howard asked.

“My friends call me Tony,” Tony responded. There was no sense in lying about his name since the Commandos already knew his name. It wasn’t like the situation with the Time Heist where Tony could give out a false name to his father back in Camp Lehigh, there were people around him who already knew his real name and who he was, so no sense in lying about it. It would definitely give Dugan more reason to suspect him if he did.

“Tony? Nice name for a robot, and I didn’t realize that robots had friends, thought they didn’t really make any friends. You are a robot, right? Or is there an actual human being underneath that suit?”

Tony did not verbally respond to Howard’s question, but if his helmet was off, people would be able to see that he was smirking. ‘ _If only you knew who you were actually talking to_ ,’ he thought.

“You’re not very talkative, are you?” Howard asked Tony when he didn’t respond to his question.

“Only to people I trust,” Tony responded, “and, preferably, people who are aren’t gonna be imprisoning me.”

There was an awkward silence between everyone at Tony’s words, but Tony did not personally care if he hurt anyone’s feelings. That is essentially what was happening: he was being imprisoned by a rebel group when he would rather be out looking for Steph. He did not have time to be helping a group of rebels, he and Steph had to get back to their own universe to little Tasha and their time. The longer they were here, the longer it took for them to get back to them, and Tony would rather not waste time, he had his priorities and his first priority was finding Steph and getting back to their daughter as soon as possible. Given the situation, though, he was given very little options: either be imprisoned and help a rebel division win a war with no end in sight _or_ attempt to go out on his own with very little resources and then possibly imprisoned by HYDRA. Tony thinks that the former option sounded a little better than the latter. After a few seconds of the awkward silence, Howard cleared his throat and changed the subject.

“The technology on your suit is pretty impressive and it seems even more advanced than HYDRA’s own, what kind of tech is it?” he asked

“Nanotech,” Tony replied simply.

At that response, Howard stopped walking all of a sudden, turning to Tony and giving him a shocked look with wide-eyes. It was only the Commandos who stared at Tony in confusion, not knowing what nanotech and wondering why Howard was looking at Tony like that.

“Nanotech?” Howard repeated. “That technology is way advanced, not even HYDRA has access to that technology!”

“What is nanotech?” Jones asked.

“It is a type of technology where it is conducted at the nanoscale,” Howard explained, confusing the Commandos. “The theories of nanotech were discussed, especially among HYDRA scientists, but no one would have access to any of the resources for that technology until about fifty to seventy years from now. Not even HYDRA, as advanced as they are, wouldn’t have access to that technology until then! How did you manage to build nanotech without any of the resources?!”

Tony said nothing in response, not sure what to say. That was long and complicated to explain, and he wasn’t sure if he could delve into it right now, they had to get out of there soon before they were spotted by HYDRA. He was saved from even responding when Dugan interrupted them.

“Hate to break this up, but perhaps you two can nerd out on science later, we gotta get goin’, Howard, before HYDRA spots us…”

Howard nodded in understanding before turning to Tony. “I’ll talk to you later, Tony,” he said. “Perhaps you can show me how to work on nanotechnology once we get to base.”

He then walked away before Tony could even reply to his suggestion, going to go fly the plane and get them out of here. Once Howard was no longer in sight, Tony took off his helmet, staring after his father with wide eyes, almost as if he could not believe he just saw his father _again_.

“ _Do you have daddy issues or something?_ ” Dernier asked him. “ _You acted as if you didn’t want him anywhere near you…_ ”

“Not that it is any of your business, Frenchie, but my dad and I did not always get along,” Tony replied, making Dernier glare at him for the nickname. Before Dernier could even say anything about it, Morita spoke up.

“It’s almost hard to believe that Howard even had a son,” he said. “I can’t really imagine him settling down with anyone. Well, maybe except for one…”

He said that last part with a bit of sadness in his tone and was looking towards the front of the plane with sympathy in his eyes. Tony did not need to ask who Morita was referring to, he already knew. He was fully aware of the story of how a young Howard Stark fell in love with Stephanie Rogers during WWII and how he was ready to settle down with her once the war was over, but his heart ended up being shattered into a million pieces when Steph did not make it back by bringing the Valkyrie down.

Tony remembered all the stories not only from his mother but Jarvis and Aunt Peggy of how his father tried searching for Steph in vain for years and how it nearly broke him that he could not find Steph and bring her body home, not realizing that the woman he fell in love with was not actually dead but was in fact alive as an icicle. It took not only Jarvis but Aunt Peggy as well to put him back together bit by bit, and then it took Maria Collins Carbonell to put him back together fully and for Howard to see that he could love again. Tony wondered if his father in this universe still loved Stephanie Rogers. By the sympathetic looks all the Commandos were sending the way Howard went, he could only guess that it was more than likely that Howard still loved her, and it made Tony wonder how he felt about losing her to a madman who forced her to marry him.

‘ _Probably not great…_ ’

Tony and the Commandos sat down just as the plane started moving and the plane soon took off into the air, the SSR rebel division now on their way to their base, or wherever was considered home for them. The plane ride was rather quiet almost the entire time, save a cough from a soldier or two and radios going off, and people making small talk. There were a couple of times where HYDRA patrol would chime in through the radio, asking them to state their business and their route, and Jones was able to handle them with ease by making up a believable story in German and they would let them be on their merry way. It was about forty minutes into the plane ride that Dugan and the Major approached Tony as he was talking to Jones, Dernier, and Morita.

“Stark is on his way down here, we are gonna go over some ground rules when you first get to base,” Dugan said to Tony.

“Why does my…?” Tony began before stopping himself in time when he realized that the Major, who still did not know who he really was, was there. “Why does Howard need to be here?”

“You got a problem with that, pal?” Dugan asked with a raised eyebrow and a bit of a threatening tone, making the Major give him a warning glare.

“I don’t have a problem with it, I just don’t see why he has to be present in order to go over the ground rules with me,” Tony replied. “Someone has to fly the plane, right?”

“ _I think someone has daddy issues_ ,” Dernier said with a smirk on his face that was directed at Tony.

“ _No, you think?_ ” Jones replied to him in French with a hint of sarcasm and a smirk on his face as well.

“I do not!” Tony cried out, but this only made Jones and Dernier’s smirks even wider. Before Tony could say anything else, he felt a clap on his shoulder and a familiar voice from behind.

“I thought there was a human being underneath that suit!” Howard said. “Seriously, pal, you gotta tell me how nanotech works.”

Tony ducked his head and turned away so that Howard wouldn’t see his face, flipping his helmet back on as he did, surprising Howard and everyone around him when he did. When he turned back around to them, he could see the weird looks he was getting not only from Howard but from the Commandos and the Major as well. He could see Howard giving him a confused look as if asking him “What did I do?”

“So,” Tony began, deciding to ignore those looks, “what’s the deal? What are these ‘ground rules’ that you have to go over with me?”

Howard turned to the Commandos with a questioning look on his face, but he only received knowing looks from them and nothing else, so he turned back to Tony.

“The rules are simple: to not make trouble,” he said. “If you make trouble, we will not hesitate to throw you in the brigg or blow you up. So, any offensive weapons you might have in there will have to be shut off or confiscated. You will also have to be blindfolded when we get to our base, which means that helmet has to come off, so we’ll probably be seeing that face of yours, even if it might be ugly.”

“Now isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black,” Tony responded before he could even stop himself.

Most of the Commandos, save for Dugan, chortled at that. Tony did not mean that as an insult, but it was clear that his father took it as one, for he narrowed his eyes at Tony.

“And just what is that supposed to mean?” he asked in a bit of a threatening tone.

“Nothing, you can take it however you want, bro,” Tony replied.

“Fine, whatever,” Howard spat out in an irritated tone, “but just an fyi, buddy, the suit may have to come off and be confiscated if you are found to be too much of a threat.”

“Yeah, no, that ain’t happening,” Tony replied.

“Oh, really? And why is that?”

“Well, to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure if I can trust you with my technology.”

And Tony was just speaking the truth: he really did not trust a young Howard Stark with his tech. If there was anything he remembered about a young Howard Stark and himself during their younger years is that they did a lot of shady things in the past and did stuff for their own gain. Tony knew he was probably not giving his father the benefit of the doubt here since he might be different within a parallel universe, but Tony wouldn’t put it past Howard to use the suit for his own personal gain once Tony’s suit was confiscated.

“Are you always a bit of an asshole?” Howard asked Tony.

“I’m told that it’s genetic.”

Dernier bursted out laughing when Tony said that, and Howard was the only one who looked at him in confusion, wondering why he was laughing. When he looked at the rest of the group, he saw all of them giving him a look as if they knew something that he didn’t and it made him wonder why they were looking at him that way and if they were hiding something from him. He decided he was going to ask them about it later once he had a moment alone with them, and he also decided he was not going to argue with Tony any further. He had no time to do that as he had to get back to piloting the plane, some people may be good but Howard considered himself the best pilot in this unit and did not want anyone messing up in case they ran into trouble.

“Okay, whatever, the helmet has to come off either way,” he said to Tony. “We’re not taking any chances. You may have become an enemy of HYDRA, but it does not mean you may not be a threat to the SSR as well.”

“Sure thing, hotshot.”

“Call me ‘hotshot’ again and I’ll break your hand.”

“I would like to see you try, pretty boy.”

Howard’s lips thinned, glaring daggers at Tony. His hands were balling into fists, and Tony could have sworn his own father was going to try to punch him only to find he didn’t.

“Just don’t cause any trouble or you’ll regret it,” he said instead. “I’m going back to pilot the plane if any of you need me.”

Howard then turned on his heel, finally leaving to go back to pilot the plane, and Tony took off his helmet once he did, hearing Howard mutter curses under his breath as he walked away. Probably not the best way to introduce himself to the man that created him, but Tony was never really good at making first impressions.

“Is it a genetic trait for all Stark men to be eccentric?” the Major asked Tony once Howard left.

This just made Dernier laugh even harder, and everyone around him gave him a weird look as if he was crazy, but he paid them no mind as he continued laughing. Eventually, the Major walked away and shook his head, muttering about how weird French men were. It was quiet on the plane once more until the Major and Dugan came back with a pair of handcuffs and a blindfold. When Tony saw the steel handcuffs, he gave them an incredulous look that read ‘really?’

“You really think those handcuffs are gonna hold me?” Tony asked them in an incredulous tone.

“Would you rather be carried into the base with your hands and feet tied up?” Dugan quipped.

Tony rolled his eyes, but told them he’ll take the handcuffs and blindfold. Putting his hands behind his back, he allowed the Major to handcuff him and it was not too long after that that he saw the blindfold go over his eyes, putting him in almost complete darkness. Tony could feel his irritation rise as they were doing this, but he tried to think from their perspective and that they were doing this for safety reasons. If he wanted to earn their trust, he needed to act in good faith and cooperate with their rules.

He was led somewhere and was pushed down to sit down with a little more force than necessary, figuring it was Dugan who did that. It was not too long after that he could feel as if the plane was getting lower in altitude and the sound of his father’s voice came through the speakers.

“You can now breathe a little easier, boys, we are home,” he said, and the soldiers around Tony erupted in cheers. “And if any of you hotshots even think about causing trouble, it’s gonna be the brigg for you.”

Tony knew that Howard was taking a shot at him, and it just made Tony roll his eyes at that. ‘ _Wow, can’t really take an affront to your ego, can you?_ ’ he thought. Then again, he was the same way and still was, now that he thought about it. He could just hear Steph’s voice in his head with a smirk on her face saying, ‘ _Like father, like son._ ’

Tony could feel the plane getting lower and lower until there was a bump from below, indicating that the plane had landed, and the plane began to speed up before it finally slowed down. It was sometime before the plane finally slowed down and came to a full complete stop that Tony heard the sound of everyone getting and he would get up too if he wasn’t blindfolded, so he remained seated. He could probably guess where to go to get off the plane, but after that, he didn’t know where to go, so he remained seated until someone came to guide him out of the plane. It wasn’t very long before he felt a person or two grab a hold of his arms and hoisted him to stand up from his seat.

“Come on, hotshot, it’s time to go meet the boss,” Tony heard the voice of Dugan say to him and then felt himself being pushed forward and off the plane.

“Is this Iron Man?” a voice asked once they were off the plane. “Follow me, the Colonel wants to meet him in the office.”

“I didn’t think a rebel division would have an office,” Tony quipped sarcastically.

“Keep your smart-ass comments to yourself, hotshot,” came the voice of Howard. “I’m going to be in the workshop if you guys need me, I need to get back to work.”

“Stark, wait,” Jones’ voice said, “you need to come with us to this meeting.”

“Why?” Howard asked.

“It’s just important that you are there,” Morita said.

“Fine,” Howard said, sighing in irritation. Tony then heard him mutter under his breath, “You guys have been acting strange lately.”

He had to hold himself back from saying something in response to that, probably best not to have his father dislike him any further than he already does. He was roughly pushed forward and he began walking, being led to this office. As they were walking, Tony began to wonder where this base for the SSR rebel division was. At first, he thought it was in a cave as the air felt hot and stuffy when he first stepped out of the plane, but then thought better of it as it could not be possible. There was no way a plane could fly into a cave, not at the size the plane was in. He obviously had to rule out forest; otherwise, he would have felt some air circulation and he didn’t, and he is pretty sure HYDRA would’ve found them by now if they were operating outside. There was no way they would have remained hidden for nearly five years, if that was the case. So then, where was this base if not in a cave or outside in a forest?

As he walked, he could hear the sound as if he was stepping against steel, and it seemed as if he was being taken somewhere further up in the cave because the air got less stuffy the further they walked. Soon, he was stopped and heard the sound of something squeaking as if a steel door was opening, feeling a cold breeze as that happened. He was pushed into whatever room they were pushing him into, being led about five to ten steps before being stopped by the two people that were guiding him and held him in place. It was quiet for a couple of minutes, except for the sound of people walking around and breathing, until the sound of the steel door opened again. Footsteps were heard walking in once the door was opened and they could be heard walking from behind Tony and then stopped in front of him.

“So, this is Iron Man, huh?” came a gruff voice that came from directly in front of Tony.

“Yes, sir.”

“I can now see why HYDRA freaked out so much.”

There was the sound of the person who just walked in walking away and then a scraping noise against the floor as if moving a chair. Tony decided that he had enough of being quiet, he wanted to see who he was talking to and he couldn’t do that with this damn itchy piece of cloth over his eyes!

“I am assuming that I’m talking to the big guy of this rebel faction you got going on?” he asked. “I would rather see who I am talking to, so if you don’t mind, I would rather have this itchy and uncomfortable thing off of my face.”

“Oh, I think we can have you wear that thing just a little bit longer,” he heard Howard say with a bit of mirth in his tone, making Tony get a little irritated at him for it. “Whaddya think, Colonel?”

“I think I am of the same mindset as Mr. Iron Man here, I prefer to look a potential threat in the eye,” the person named ‘Colonel’ responded. “Take off the blindfold.”

The blindfold was taken off rather quickly, and Tony had to adjust to the light as there was a light shining in his face. Once he was able to adjust to it, he was able to see his surroundings a lot better. Looking around the room he was in, he saw that he was in a room that once looked like a lab but was now a war room of some sorts. There were multiple soldiers around him, including the Commandos, and they all had their fingers on the trigger as if ready to shoot Tony if he made one wrong move. Jones, Morita, and Dernier were standing on Tony’s left side and Howard on his right, all of them facing him, and Howard had his arms crossed with a look on his face as if he would rather be anywhere but here. Looking directly on both sides of him, Tony could see that it was Dugan and another big burly soldier that were holding his arms and keeping him in place.

Besides the light shining in Tony’s face, the room was relatively dark with only a couple of lights here and there. On the left side of the room were a bunch of boards that were pinned with maps and paper that looked like they were listing tactics and units that were available, which looked like there weren’t that many, and there were multiple HYDRA pins all over the maps. There was a machine in the middle of the side of the room as well that looked like it once held something, but now served as a table stand as there was a board on top of the machine. Looking back up front, Tony could see a desk in front of him that was on a raised platform with a leather chair that looked old and faded, and there was a gruff looking old man sitting in the chair. Behind the desk was what looked like a large window, it was hard to tell as there were large boards up, keeping people from viewing what was behind them. Tony could have sworn, though, that he saw snow coming in through the cracks of the board, so it made him think that there was a window behind them.

As for the old man sitting in the leather chair, Tony took a good look at him and wondered why he looked so familiar. The old man looked like he was in his late 60’s or maybe early 70’s, and he had a broad nose and large ears that reminded Tony of Dumbo a little bit, and he also had a high forehead. His hair color, which looked as if it might have been dirty blonde or brown at one point, was now graying and he had wrinkles all over his tired, worn out face. Taking one more good look at him, Tony realized who was sitting in front of him and his eyes went wide at that revelation.

“Colonel Chester Phillips? You’re alive?!” he said in a shocking tone before he could stop himself.

Colonel Chester Phillips, one of the leaders of the SSR division and founder of SHIELD from Tony’s universe, gave Tony a suspicious look.

“It is clear that my reputation precedes me if a complete stranger knows who I am,” he said. “Yes, I’m still alive, I still got some life left in me to fight against this parasite that has infected the universe, and I’m not gonna stop ‘til I’m dead. I don’t know who you are, though, or how you came to know me. So, you mind telling me who you are, Mr. Iron Man, and how you know me?”

“My name is Tony.”

“You got a last name with that, Tony?”

Tony said nothing and looked towards his father, unsure if he should give out his real last name or a fake one. Considering that there were people in the room who already knew who he was and that he was related to Howard, he was thinking he shouldn’t lie about his last name. That left out telling the truth, and that was going to be long and complicated to explain, one that everyone in the room wasn’t going to believe.

“He apparently knows Captain America, sir,” Dugan answered for Tony.

“Wait, you know Stephanie?” Howard asked Tony in a surprised tone.

Tony looked at him and saw the almost hopeful expression on his face, and it made Tony feel almost sorry for him but rather awkward at the same time. From the look in Howard’s eyes, it seemed to Tony that he still had feelings for Steph, and that was just awkward for Tony since he and Steph were once in a relationship and now have a daughter together. It would no doubt break his father’s already seemingly fragile heart, and Tony rather not disclose that. Tony may be an asshole but he wasn’t _that_ much of an asshole.

“And how exactly is it that you know Captain Rogers?” Phillips asked Tony. “Besides us, the only people who really know about her are either a) dead, b) believe her to be dead, or c) a top official working for HYDRA. So, which one is it? ‘Cause I can tell you right now, boy, I will not hesitate to kill you right on the spot if I find out you are a spy for HYDRA.”

“As I was telling one of your paranoid soldiers here,” Tony began, referring to Dugan with a nod of his head towards him, “I am not working for HYDRA and I never will, they are the reason why my par—my mother is dead and she’d be rolling in her grave if she found out I was working for them.”

“I suppose I can understand that, but that still does not explain who you are or how you even know Captain Rogers,” Phillips said. “Last I checked, you are not part of the SSR and never were. So, I am going to ask you again, who are you and how do you know Captain Rogers?”

Tony opened his mouth, but then closed it back up. He was not sure how to go about explaining how he knew Stephanie without sounding like a lunatic, only the Commandos knew and most of them did not believe him while one thought he was a lunatic working as a spy for HYDRA. Everything that he thought of where he can best explain it went right out of the window, so the only thing he kept doing was opening and closing his mouth while everyone else in the room waited patiently for Tony to respond.

“Could it be that you know her because you are related to Howard?” the Major asked Tony, speaking up before he could.

This made everyone in the room, save for the Commandos, look at the Major in shock before looking between Tony and Howard. Meanwhile, Howard had a look of disbelief on his face and laughed after a couple seconds of being quiet as if that was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard.

“ _You_ are related to _me?_ ” he said in a disbelieving tone, pointing at Tony. “There is no way you are related to me!”

“Really? Why do you say that?” Tony asked in a tone as if he knew better.

“For one thing, you’re not even that good-looking to be related to me,” Howard replied. “You got a weird-looking beard and hair that makes you look like a punk, there is no way I would let a relative of mine look like that!”

Tony shot up his eyebrows and gave Howard a look of disbelief of his own.

“Really, you’re gonna get on my case about how I look when it looks as if you haven’t bathed in days?” he snapped at him.

“Excuse me if this ‘rebel faction’ don’t really have access to any necessities such as showers or baths,” Howard shot back.

“We actually do have showers, you just don’t really take care of yourself and you refuse to let us help you when we try,” Jones said.

“The showers are too cold for me…” Howard replied lamely.

“This base is hot and stuffy all the time, even more so in the workshop where you spend most of your time!”

“If you boys are quite finished…” Phillips interrupted them with a stern tone.

“Sorry, Colonel…”

“Sorry about that, Colonel,” Howard said, “but there is just no way that this guy is related to me. Last I checked, all of my known relatives are dead and any relatives that I did not know about are most likely dead when Schmidt blew up the entire world back in ‘45! Either this guy is a lunatic or he’s lying.”

“Hold on a minute…” Phillips said as he looked between Tony and Howard. “Stark, stand right next to this fella.”

“Why?”

“Do not question me, Stark, just do it!”

Howard sighed in irritation before walking over to stand right next to Tony. He did not turn to face Phillips, though, only his side was facing Phillips as he was facing Tony. When he did this, Tony could see the annoyed look on his face.

“Face me, Stark,” Phillips commanded.

Tony saw Howard roll his eyes and then he turned to face Phillips, standing almost shoulder to shoulder next to Tony. Once he did that, Phillips took a good look at both of them and a look of familiarity crossed his features.

“The familiarity between you two is almost uncanny,” he said and turned his attention to Tony to speak to him. “You look like you could be Stark’s older brother. Is that who you are, Tony? Are you Stark’s older brother?”

Before Tony could even say anything, his father spoke up in an incredulous tone.

“Wait, you don’t actually believe that this guy is related to me, do you? There is no way that he is, I have no other living relatives!”

“And yet, people in your division keep saying that I look like you,” Tony said. “Now, what does that tell you?”

“I’d say it is more of a coincidence or that you are some weird, freaky older doppelganger of me,” Howard replied, making Tony roll his eyes at that.

“I don’t know about that, both of you look pretty similar and act a bit alike, it wouldn’t surprise me if you are related to each other,” the Major spoke up.

“He is not related to me!” Howard cried in frustration. “How many times do I have to say it?!”

It was quiet for a moment as everyone looked at Howard and Tony as if they were all trying to figure out if the two were related to each other or not. Tony had averted his eyes to the ground at some point, and he was quiet for a few seconds before finally speaking up. However, he was very quiet when he spoke up, so no one actually heard what he said.

“What’d ya say, boy?” Phillips asked. “Speak up, we didn’t hear you.”

Tony looked up from the ground, turning to look at Howard and saying a little more clearly, “I am related to you.”

Howard looked at Tony with a bit of shock on his face and then it morphed into disbelief. He did not get a chance to express it or deny Tony was related to him, for Phillips spoke up.

“And how exactly are you related to Howard Stark here?”

“That’s, um, that’s a little more complicated to explain…”

“It really is not that complicated if we’re related,” Howard said as he crossed his arms across his chest and glared at Tony. “Just say how we’re related to each other, it really shouldn’t be that complicated!”

“Believe me, it’s a lot more complicated than you think.”

“How so?”

Tony opened his mouth, but still nothing would come out as he struggled with finding a way to explain this. When he still couldn’t find a way to explain it, he sighed in frustration and turned to some of the Commandos for help.

“Is there any way you guys can help me explain this?”

The Commandos said nothing in response.

“Explain what to me?” Howard asked.

“Seriously, none of you are going to help me explain it to him?” Tony asked the Commandos, ignoring Howard’s question.

“Sorry, pal, this is a family matter,” Morita said, raising his hands in the air.

“Ditto,” Jones said.

“ _I can only explain it well in French_ ,” Dernier replied.

“You are no help at all,” Tony said to them.

“Will one of you please explain to me what the fuck is going on with you guys?!” Howard yelled at them in frustration. “You guys have been acting strange towards me ever since I picked you up as if you know something that I don’t. Do you mind telling me what the fuck it is so I can be in the know too?!”

It was quiet as no one said anything in response for a while.

“Alright, screw it, some of you already think I’m crazy anyway,” Tony finally said and then turned to his father. “My name is Tony Stark, and I am your son.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always had a bit of flair for the dramatic. Here is a link to the dress that Steph was wearing in the beginning of the chapter in Tony's dream: https://pin.it/5jMlSVP
> 
> Also, if you are confused by the relationship status between Tony and Steph, let me give you the gist of it without giving too much away, as it will be explained in future chapters and a short story that will basically be a prequel I plan on posting sometime in the future: Tony and Steph are not together but they are both still very much in love with each other, but due to their own issues combined with Tony and Steph becoming parents not too long after the Battle for Earth and having to deal with PTSD from said battle while at it, they never really had a chance to really go over or talk about their relationship. That is basically the gist of their relationship.
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Leave a kudos or a comment if you do. I will be working on chapter seven as soon as possible, you might see Tony and Steph's daughter in the next chapter or in chapter eight, will have to see first how long chapter seven is going to be and if I can fit that scene in there.
> 
> 8/31: I nearly forgot to mention this but rest in power to our Black Panther and Wakanda king, Chadwick Boseman :( I was literally working on the sixth chapter when I heard about it, and it’s just so sad! My heart broke when I found out.


	7. Joining the SSR and Trying to Find a Way In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony tells his story to the SSR and ends up joining their cause. Meanwhile, Steph learns a little more about her life in the parallel universe and tries coming up with a plan to get into Schmidt's small facility while Thor and Bruce try to get Doctor Strange to help them find Tony and Steph, even though the Avengers and the Mystics did not part ways on the best of terms the last they saw each other back in 2019.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, everyone, I guess this is my little Christmas gift to you all who already love this story, so here is the 7th chapter! Thank you again to everyone who left a kudos or commented on the last chapter, I really appreciate it.
> 
> I do apologize that it took me so long, but I got a huge writer's block. I would have posted this a while ago, but then the election came up and that was an incredibly stressful week for me, so I had to take a bit of a break. Plus, with work, I don't have as much time to work on this as I did when I was furloughed earlier in the year, but I managed to get back into writing this and finally finished it just as Christmas was coming up, so it is my Christmas gift to you all. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
> 
> No flames, but constructive criticism is always welcomed. Feel free to leave a kudos or a comment, if you wish.

The whole room was silent when Tony revealed to Howard (and, essentially, to everyone else in the room) that he was his son. Everyone was looking at Tony with their eyes wide in disbelief and their jaws practically hitting the floor, not believing what they just heard. Howard was looking at Tony as if he was crazy and even Colonel Phillips’ own mouth was wide open and looking at Tony with an incredulous look on his face. Tony had found the way Phillips was staring at him almost comical that he had to hold in a chuckle. He always thought that Colonel Phillips was rather stoic in nature and hardly showed emotions as he was a gruff, old-school military man and even saw pictures and heard stories from not only his father, but Aunt Peggy and Steph. So, for Tony to see the rather stoic military man look at him the way he was now was almost comical.

Tony did not know exactly how long the room was silent after he made his announcement. It could have been seconds or minutes after, it just felt like a long time to Tony of no one saying anything. It wasn’t until what seemed like forever of no one saying anything that the silence was finally broken when Howard found the ability to speak again.

“You are my WHAT?!”

“Really? You went there?” Jones asked Tony in an incredulous tone, not believing that Tony broke the news like that.

“Did you really just break the news to him just like that?” Morita asked, speaking in the same tone.

“Wait a minute, you knew about this?” Howard asked the Commandos, turning his attention to them with a surprised look on his face. “And you didn’t even say anything to me?!”

“Well, you know, we would have, except we couldn’t exactly discuss top secret stuff out in the open,” Morita replied. “Some people still don’t have clearance.”

Howard scoffed in disbelief, not believing what he just heard from Tony. He turned away from the latter, running his fingers through his hair and messing it up even further than it already was.

“This is just unbelievable,” he muttered to himself before turning his attention back to Tony. “How is it that you are my son?”

Tony raised an eyebrow at him when he asked that question.

“Really, you’re going to make me explain that?” he asked in a sarcastic tone. “I thought it was the parents’ job to explain how making babies work.”

“Not that!” Howard said, looking absolutely disgusted at having to explain that. “I know how babies are made, smart-ass, I am not a half-wit. What I mean is, how exactly can you be my son when you look at least twice my age? There is no way that you are my son! I thought you were just eccentric, but now I’m just thinking you are downright crazy.”

“My sentiments exactly,” Dugan responded.

“That is enough!”

Everyone became quiet at the sound of Phillips’ command. As soon as he had more control of the room, he turned his attention to the Commandos.

“Now, I want you guys to explain to me what the hell is going on and what horseshit you brought to me?” he demanded.

“Did you ever get a report about an anomaly that appeared in the sky for a minute or two at least two to three hours before HYDRA bombed Kiev?” Morita asked.

“I believe I did receive a report about it,” Phillips replied. “What of it?"

“Well, Dugan, Dernier, and I were right under it when it appeared. Originally, we thought it was a HYDRA weapon, but even HYDRA was surprised by the anomaly, from what I picked up on the radio. Something appeared out of it and crash-landed into a building, and we all went to investigate it and…well, that is when we came across Tony. He claims to be the son of Howard Stark from another universe and he works for a superhero group called the Avengers. Apparently, that is how he knows Captain Rogers.”

“Another universe?” Phillips repeated in an incredulous tone, and Morita nodded. “What kind of bullshit story is that? That is the most absurd thing I have ever heard of!”

“If you think that is absurd, Colonel, you should hear his story,” Jones said.

“Alright, I’ll humor him,” Phillips said and turned his attention to Tony. “Why don’t you tell us who you are and where did you come from?”

Tony took a deep breath as he prepared to tell the story of who he was and where he came from once more.

“As I mentioned before, my name is Tony Stark, and I am the son of Howard and Maria Stark,” he began to explain. “Full name is Anthony Edward Stark, in case you were wonderin’. I was born on May 30, 1970 and I grew up to become the CEO of Stark Industries. All of that became possible because of Captain Stephanie Rogers…”

So, he continued to explain the story once more, starting off with explaining how Steph defeated the Red Skull back in ‘45 and turned into an icicle that kept her alive for nearly seventy years. As he went on, explaining how he met Steph and how the Avengers got together and some of the battles they’ve been in together, everyone but the Commandos stared at Tony with their jaws and eyes slowly becoming wider with every word that Tony was saying, not believing what they were hearing.

“…and somehow, Steph and I got stuck in this universe, and I have to find her and find a way back home before HYDRA finds her,” Tony finished.

By that time, everyone but the Commandos were looking at Tony as though he was a lunatic. He knew that he sounded like a lunatic when describing the story to a bunch of people whose history was very much different from his own universe, but there was no other way to describe it. It was the truth, and he had to somehow make them believe him.

“I know this all sounds crazy, but I’m telling the truth,” Tony implored with Phillips.

“And, pray tell, why should we believe you?” Howard asked in a disbelieving tone. “I thought you were crazy, but now, I just think you are a down right lunatic!”

“For once, you and I agree on something Stark,” Phillips said.

“I am not a lunatic, I’m telling the truth!” Tony cried, feeling himself starting to panic a little bit.

“I’ll believe that when pigs fly,” Phillips replied. “Now, why don’t you tell us who you really are? Because we do not believe that cock and bull story you just gave us.”

“I am who I say I am, I’m not lying!”

“And I am more than likely to believe that you are a HYDRA spy trying to infiltrate the SSR by giving us this really bad cock and bull story…”

“Uh, sir,” Jones began, “I don’t think you’d want to—”

“How many times do I have to say it? I am not a HYDRA spy!” Tony shouted suddenly in an irate tone. “I would never work for the same organization that killed my parents, so stop accusing me of being one! I will not hesitate to kick your ass no matter how old you are or how much Steph respected you.”

His sudden outburst had surprised everyone in the room, and they could see the rage in his eyes. Some were a bit frightened by it and backed away. Dugan, who had experience of dealing with Tony’s rage firsthand, held Tony back as it looked as if Tony was about to pounce on Phillips. He would not hesitate to shoot Tony right on the spot if he tried to hurt the Colonel in any way.

“Wait a second…” Howard said, speaking up after the room was quiet for a moment or two, “I was killed by HYDRA?”

Tony looked to Howard, seeing a surprised look on his face, and realized that he revealed his own father’s fate. That was something he did not necessarily want to reveal at all to his father. ‘ _A little too late for that now_ ,’ he thought to himself with a sigh. He nodded to confirm the answer to Howard’s question.

“Back in 1991, you managed to recreate the super soldier serum,” Tony explained. “HYDRA got word of that, and they sent a brain-washed assassin after you and my mother while you were going out of town for Christmas. They killed my mother because, well, in the bad guys’ book, she was collateral damage. After the deed was done, the assassin stole the serum for HYDRA and they took it for themselves.”

Howard looked stunned at hearing that and was giving Tony a bit of a sympathetic look. Tony at first thought Howard was ready to believe him, but he knew that would be too easy. As if on cue, Howard shook his head as if trying to think with a more clear head.

“This guy is raving mad, I don’t think he is going to let up,” Howard said to Phillips. “I believe this guy is a danger to the SSR, we outta confiscate the suit and lock him in the brigg.”

Phillips doesn’t respond to Howard’s suggestion; instead, he kept his eyes locked on Tony and glared at him. It was a moment or so when he finally moved, leaning forward and resting his forearms with his hands clasped together on the desk.

“I am only going to ask you this once more, so you only get one more chance to tell the truth and some clean: who are you really?”

“I know it’s unbelievable, hell, I wouldn’t believe it either if I was in your shoes, but I am telling the truth,” Tony replied. “I am the son of Howard Stark from an alternative reality where HYDRA didn’t win the war, and my name is Anthony Edward Stark.”

Phillips looked as if he sighed in frustration as he leaned back in his seat and gave Tony an annoyed look. Tony continued to implore him when he saw this.

“Look, I am not the only one that was sent to this alternative reality, the Stephanie Rogers in my universe is trapped in this universe as well. I need to get out there and find her so we can find a way back to our own universe.”

“Alright, fine,” Phillips began as he got up from his chair and stood at attention with his hands behind his back. “If you won’t tell us the truth, we will just have to get it out of you another way. Confiscate the suit and then lock this lunatic up in the brigg.”

“No, I am telling the truth!” Tony shouted before Dugan and the other soldier could begin dragging him away. “I swear, on my mother’s grave, I am. I have to find Steph! She is out there somewhere and could be in danger right now, and I’d be damned before I let HYDRA get their hands on her!”

“Captain Rogers is currently a prisoner of war right now,” Phillips replied. “The only place she has been in is Schmidt’s hellhole of a mansion where he has done some ungodly things to her for the past five years now, things I wouldn’t even wish on my worst enemy. She is not in some other damn universe that you have created in your deranged mind.”

“What will it take for you to believe me?” Tony asked desperately.

“I’m afraid there is nothing you can do that will make me believe you, son,” Phillips said. “Take him away.”

He ordered this to Dugan and the soldier, and they began to drag Tony out of the room. That is when Tony had had enough. He did not care if there was a slim chance of him surviving out there on his own, there was no way in hell he was going to let these people take him as a prisoner when he had a family to think about, even if his relationship was rather strained with one said family member. He would rather die than let them do that. Just when he was ready to defend himself and make his escape, though, someone spoke up.

“Colonel, wait,” Morita said. “Let’s not throw him in the brigg just yet.”

“And why shouldn’t we?” Dugan asked him, sounding frustrated. “This lunatic has already proven that he is a threat to the SSR, and the Colonel agrees!”

“I know, Dum Dum, but maybe there is something that Tony has that proves he is telling the truth.”

“Oh, yeah, and what would that be?” Howard asked in a dubious tone.

Morita did not respond to Howard’s question and turned his attention to Phillips.

“Look, Colonel, I know this all sounds crazy, but I think we should let this Tony fella get a chance to prove he’s telling the truth…”

“Private Morita, you’re crossing the border line of talking crazy.”

“Maybe, but I and so did Dernier and Dugan saw something come out of the anomaly and crash into the building where we came across Tony, so there has got to be some line of truth to his story. Not to mention that Schmidt managed to take over the entire globe with something that no one believed in, but he did and he found it and used it to whip out nearly 50% of the population. Granted, this doesn’t seem possible, but neither did the existence of the Tesseract seem possible, who is to say that alternative realities don’t exist? There has gotta be something that Tony has that proves he is telling the truth.”

As Morita was talking, Tony was thinking of any proof that he may have had that could convince everyone in this room he was telling the truth. He thought really hard on it until he realized that the HUD was full of videos of not only memories of him and Steph, but footage of battles he and the Avengers have been in. That was all the proof he needed to convince everyone he was telling the truth, but he would need to put on his helmet in order to show it, something that no one in this room wanted him to do.

Phillips appeared conflicted as if trying to make a decision after listening to Morita. After some time, he relaxed and nodded, giving Morita his consent. The latter then turned his attention to Tony.

“Do you have any proof, other than your word, that you are telling the truth?” he asked.

“I do,” Tony replied with a nod. “I have video footage of all the battles I have been through with Steph, but, in order to show them to you, I need you to trust me. I need to have my helmet on in order to show it, and I need your trigger-happy soldiers promise not to try to shoot me once I put it on. It’s the only way to show the footage.”

Morita turned to Phillips who appeared to contemplate that, not sure if he should do that or not. He decided to allow it as he sighed, not really liking this option. Private Morita was right, though, they should give Tony the chance to prove he was telling the truth, even if there was little to no chance he could. Plus, Morita seemed to trust the guy, and Phillips decided to take that into consideration as he found Private Morita to be a good judge of character.

“Alright, I’ll allow it,” he said. “I will have my men at the ready, though, so don’t even think about trying anything funny. I will not hesitate to have them put a bullet in you if you do.”

Tony was going to mention that the suit was bulletproof, but then thought better of it and decided to keep his mouth shut on that one. Some people did not look happy about Phillips allowing Tony to put his helmet on with Dugan being the least happy about it.

“Colonel, you can’t be serious?” he said in a disbelieving tone.

“Do not question me, you bad-tempered hot-headed soldier, just do what you are told!” Phillips demanded. “Or is it you I have to throw in the brigg?”

Dugan looked pissed by his CO’s threat, but decided not to question him any further and said loud and clearly, “No, sir.”

“Good. Soldiers, stand at the ready!”

There was the sound of guns clicking and every gun in the room pointed at Tony with the exception of the Colonel who took out a pistol and kept it by his side. Dugan and the soldier still kept a hold of Tony’s arms, and Tony could feel them hold onto them a little tighter after Phillips’ command. On his right side, he saw a soldier grab a hold of his father and drag him behind him as if trying to use himself as a shield in order to protect Howard in case Tony tried anything funny.

All the guns pointed at him was a bit unnerving to Tony as it made him feel trapped and boxed-in, and he tried to remind himself that they were only doing it as a precaution. He also found it hilarious that Dugan and the soldier were doing their best to hold him back when he could probably Wing Chun out of their arms. Then he thought that would probably give them reason to shoot him and decided it would be best to _not_ Wing Chun his way out of this.

“Ready when you are, lunatic,” Phillips said when Tony didn’t move or say anything after a while.

‘ _Right, I still got to show the footage_ ,’ Tony thought as he realized he had yet to do that even long after everyone aimed their guns at him, much to his embarrassment. He was just glad that the room was dark enough that no one could really see the blush of embarrassment creep on his cheeks.

“FRIDAY?” he called out to his AI and his mask flipped on.

“Yes, boss?” came the voice of FRIDAY, nearly surprising everyone in the room who had yet to hear Tony’s AI.

“Play any footage of the Avengers’ battles.”

“You got it, boss, I’ll start with the first one.”

A projection came through the eyes of the mask, surprising everyone, and they all turned back to the boarded wall towards the projection. They all moved out of the way when they saw a video was playing and seeing that made everyone wonder if there was anything that the Iron Man suit couldn’t do. As they watched the video, that thought went out of their minds as they became numb with shock at what they were seeing on the projection.

In the video, they could see footage of the Avengers’ very first battle. It showed Tony in New York city where he was fighting against the Chitauri alongside his teammates, and Tony saw the familiar face of Natasha Romanoff. Seeing her face made him feel the sting of sorrow and remembering how much he and Steph more than anything missed her.

“That city…is that New York?” Howard asked. “I recognize some of those landmarks…”

“ _Forget that! What in the hell are those things?_ ” Dernier nearly shouted as he pointed at the footage of the Chitauri.

“Yeah, what Dernier said, what in the hell are those things?” Jones said in a shocked tone.

“They are an alien race known as the Chitauri,” Tony replied in English. “The Avengers and I fought them in New York when Loki tried to invade and take over Earth.”

Dernier’s eyes go wide in awe and a bit of disillusionment at hearing the word ‘alien’. Jones, however, seemed more focused on another thing that Tony said.

“Loki? Loki as in the Norse god of mischief? That Loki?!”

“That’s the one!”

Jones’ eyes went wide in astonishment before turning his attention back to the footage. Meanwhile, Phillips was watching the footage of the Battle of New York with an incredulous look on his face and he had dropped his shotgun to the floor at one point as he was watching it. He did not want to believe what he was seeing, that all of this footage he was seeing was fake, but… _aliens?!_ Even HYDRA couldn’t pull off faking something like that, they weren’t that creative. This just proved that Tony was telling the truth, and he just couldn’t believe it. The crazy son of a bitch was telling the truth, he thought in disbelief.

A footage of Steph eventually came up. At first, no one believed it was her as the uniform was different, but they would recognize that long blonde braided hair from anywhere and they would recognize that voice too. There was no denying it was her once they heard her giving out commands to everyone in the video.

“That’s Stephanie…” Howard said.

Tony looked to his father and saw him looking at the projection with a sad and remorseful look on his face. He could have sworn he heard Howard’s voice crack a little bit too, which made Tony feel a little bit awkward and slightly guilty too, if he was being honest. But, really, he had no reason to feel guilty, and yet he did, he didn’t understand why.

“ _Oh my god, the lunatic was telling the truth…_ ” Dernier said in amazement.

“Son of a bitch,” Tony heard Dugan mutter under his breath behind him. Hearing that made Tony smirk behind his helmet. ‘ _Now you can’t accuse me of being a HYDRA spy_ ,’ he thought to himself.

Everyone in the room watched the footage in amazement. Tony did not know exactly how long he had stood there playing them, but it felt like a while as his legs were getting tired. Either that, or he had just been standing in the same spot for too long. The footage did not really go in chronological order and seemed sporadic. It would go into one part of a battle before cutting off and going to a different part of the battle or a different one altogether, so there were videos of battles shown against not only HYDRA but Ultron as well. To Tony, it seemed as if FRIDAY was trying to show everyone in the room as much as possible to prove that he was telling the truth, he had to remember to thank her for that later.

At one point, Phillips had turned from the projection to Tony with a look of revelation on his face. Tony could see the Colonel staring at him that way and wondered if that meant he now believed his story. Tony hoped it did, the Colonel may see the footage with his own eyes, but seeing and believing were two different things.

“What is that?” Howard suddenly asked.

Everyone looked back at the projection to see what Howard was referring to. To his horror, Tony saw a video of Thanos where he was sitting in the middle of the ruined Avengers’ facility with that same high and mighty smirk on his face that just made Tony’s blood boil, but it also gave him reminders of his fears and nightmares that he had been dealing with for a little over a year now. At that point, Tony decided to turn off the projection. He did not want anyone to see that nor did he want any reminders of Thanos at all, just wanting to forget about him.

The projection was turned off and everyone turned around to look at Tony where they saw his suit condensing until all that was left of the suit was the arc reactor. Phillips looked at Tony up and down with a rather perplexed look on his face as he saw Tony in his blue jeans and black ACDC shirt for the first time, no doubt thinking that his attire was rather strange looking.

“So, you really are my son from an alternative reality…” Howard said to Tony, looking at him in complete shock.

Tony responded with a nod of his head, and Howard looked dismayed when he did as if he didn’t want to believe it. He backed up with his hand over his mouth and shook his head until his back met a device that looked unused. He did not want to believe it as it just didn’t seem possible, but he could not deny it after everything he just witnessed on those videos.

“How did you and Steph get here? That is, I mean, the Stephanie Rogers from your universe,” Howard said to Tony after being quiet for a minute or two.

“I am not exactly sure, but I believe a bad guy who called himself Doctor Doom opened a portal which caused the anomaly to happen back in Kiev, and it is how Steph and I got blasted into this universe,” Tony replied. “The Stephanie Rogers from my universe is somewhere out there, and I need to find her before HYDRA does and find a way to open that portal again so that Steph and I can get back home.”

“If it was a portal and that Rogers from your universe is somewhere out there, how come she was not with you when you landed in Kiev?” Jones asked.

“I am not sure, but I know she is out there. I saw her in the portal with me before she disappeared through it and I ended up landing in Kiev. Not exactly sure how or why, but I did.”

The room was quiet as they all took this information in, and everyone turned to Colonel Phillips who was the ultimate decider of Tony’s fate, such as if he was going to throw him in the brigg or not. Phillips had a bit of a contemplative look on his face as if trying to decide what to do and suddenly turned on his heel, walking back towards the desk behind the chair while tapping his chin, obviously thinking. It wasn't long before he turned and faced Tony, looking at him in the eye.

“It is almost hard to believe your story, but I cannot unsee what I just saw, and I don’t think HYDRA has the ability to edit footage, not at the level I was seeing,” Phillips said. “I now believe you. It also seems very clear to me that the two of us have a common enemy, both in your own universe as well as this one since you did manage to take out almost an entire unit of HYDRA and made a fugitive out of yourself as a result. I’m willing to help you, however, my help does not come for free…”

“I had a feeling this was coming,” Tony muttered under his breath before speaking up more clearly. “What is it that you want?”

“It is quite simple: we want your help in turning the tide of this war. With that suit of yours, you are strong and powerful enough to give us the power we need in order to defeat HYDRA, and it can help us win the war. So, what do you say, Stark junior, are you willing to help us?”

Tony was quiet for a moment as he thought about Phillips’ offer. He wasn’t sure how he felt about being used as a weapon, but he is pretty sure he would get thrown in the brigg if he refused. However, that did not mean he was not willing to compromise and make a deal with them if that meant them helping him find Steph and find a way back home.

“I will help only on one condition: that you help me find the Stephanie Rogers from my universe and you will help me rescue her if she is captured by HYDRA and help us find a way back home,” he finally said in a firm tone. “Steph and I have someone important to look after back home, and they are more important to get back to than anything else. Do we have a deal?”

Phillips was staring at Tony as if he was trying to read him. It wasn’t until a look of familiarity crossed his features that he nodded in understanding.

“You got yourself a deal, son. Uncuff him!”

He commanded this to Dugan who did so with a rather reluctant look on his face. Tony sighed with relief once the handcuffs were taken off and he rubbed and shook his wrists to get some feeling back in them after being handcuffed for so long. Phillips then approached Tony until he was standing directly in front of him and held out his hand to him.

“Welcome to the SSR rebels division, Mr. Anthony Stark,” he said.

Tony looked at the hand for a moment before finally taking Phillips hand, shaking it.

“Glad to be on board.”

Not too long after that, all the soldiers who were in the room went up to Tony and shook his hand, introducing themselves, and some of the Commandos were now more open and friendly towards him. Almost everyone in the room looked happy with Tony willing to help them in this war. The only people who did not look happy about this were Dugan and Howard, both of them having sour looks on their faces as they watched everyone welcome Tony to the division.

* * *

_New York, 2020_

It was night time and the city was still recovering from the latest battle of the Avengers’. The group especially was still recovering, but also sick with worry over the well-being of their leaders, wondering where they were and if they were even alive. To Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch, most of her teammates were just sick with worry, but none of them were probably feeling the guilt that she was feeling right now.

After relieving Peter of his babysitting duty and having managed to put Natasha to sleep, she went out to the balcony to be alone with her thoughts, looking at the view of the city from the Avengers’ facility. She felt incredibly guilty over what happened during the battle today and that she was the reason that none of them knew where Tony and Steph were.

‘ _Why did I not think it through and stop myself before blowing him up to pieces?_ ’ she berated herself.

She knew why: she was driven by revenge, something that Steph had often stressed to never do, but at the time, it was all she could think about. She had lost so much already and it made her sorrowful as well as angry at the possibility of losing more people she cared about. First, it was her parents and then it was her twin brother during the battle with Ultron and then Viz and now possibly Tony and Steph. She was not sure if she could take any more loss.

Not only that, but the fact that she was willing to kill someone scared her, and she had experienced that same willingness when she was snapped back to life in 2019. For those who survived the snap, a year had already passed, but for Wanda, the loss of Vision was still fresh. So, when she came back to life, the first thing that came to her mind was revenge. She was willing to kill another being and while Thanos’ death had been justified, what scared her was how _powerful_ she became when she was driven by revenge. It was exhilarating, but at the same time, it scared her because while she was also powerful, she was also incredibly destructive and that scared her more than anything.

If there was anything that scared her, it was her hurting people because she lost control of her powers once more. Thank goodness she didn’t this time, but what about next time? There was a reason why so many people were still wary of her, even if she was a member of the well-loved superhero group.

Wanda sighed as all these thoughts consumed her, making her feel even more guilty about what happened. ‘ _Rhodey was right, it is my fault that we don’t know where Tony and Steph are at right now_ ,’ she thought. ‘ _I should have kept Doctor Doom alive so that we could question him and be able to find them faster._ ’ She felt as if Steph would be disappointed in her if she knew that Wanda had let her rage get the best of her, and just the thought of that brought tears to her eyes and she began to cry.

As she was crying, Rhodey came into the room to check on both Wanda and Natasha aka lil’ Tasha to see how they were doing, but also to apologize to Wanda. He realized that he had been a little harsh with her earlier by blaming her when he shouldn’t have, especially when she is the reason that the world is safe now. He stepped in Natasha’s room, seeing Natasha fast asleep in her crib, but Wanda was nowhere in the room. Looking around, he was able to spot her out on the balcony and stepped out there to talk to her.

“Hey…” Rhodey greeted in a rather awkward tone.

Wanda turned to see that it was Rhodey and she quickly wiped her tears away. A sniffle came out of her before she responded back to him.

“Hi…”

Rhodey realized through her sniffling and her bloodshot red eyes that Wanda had been crying. This made him feel guilty and wish even more that he had not been so quick to blame her.

“Are you alright?” he asked as he approached her. He stopped until he was a couple of steps from her, trying to give her some space so it didn’t feel like he was encroaching on it.

“If you actually mean if I’m still blaming myself over what happened, then yes, I am,” Wanda replied.

Wanda’s response just made Rhodey even more remorseful, and he knew that the time to apologize to her was now.

“Look, what happened earlier with me blaming you, I’m sorry,” he said. “It was wrong of me to blame you. I was just worried about Tony and Steph, and I took that out on you when I shouldn’t have.”

“You are not wrong, though, I am to blame for why we don’t know where Tony and Steph are right now,” Wanda said. “I let my anger consume me and I destroyed the one person who knew if they were alive or dead. Steph always told me I needed to control my emotions. Well, I failed in that big time today. She would be so disappointed in me if she knew what I did earlier.”

“I don’t think she would be disappointed,” Rhodey contradicted, and Wanda gave him a ‘you are kidding me, right?’ look. “Okay, maybe she would be disappointed a little bit by that, but I think she would also be proud of you for defeating Doctor Doom.”

“And why do you say that?”

“If there is anything I and many people know about Steph is that she sacrifices herself for the greater good, almost in the same annoying way that Tony does. She would rather die or disappear from the face of the universe than to let a psychopath like Doctor Doom destroy the universe. I think she would be proud of you for doing what was necessary.”

Wanda said nothing in response to that, just thinking over Rhodey’s words. She wasn’t sure if she believed him, but she also wondered if she should tell him about her fears, about losing control the way she did, but then she thought better of it. He wouldn’t understand. The only people who would really understand how she felt was Steph and Clint and maybe even the late Natasha, but the latter was dead and Steph was missing. Who knows? She might even be dead along with Tony. Wanda prayed that wasn’t the case.

A noise then pierced the air that came from inside the room, taking both Rhodey and Wanda out of their thoughts. It was the sound of a baby crying, and both realized that lil’ Tasha had woken up. Wanda went back inside where she saw the daughter of Stephanie Rogers and Tony Stark and her goddaughter, Natasha Maria Stark, standing in her crib.

Natasha was about 11-months-old, standing about 73 centimeters tall, and she had dark brown hair and pointed ears that made her look like her father, but her face was all her mother’s. She had blue eyes and a small narrow nose with her face in the shape of a heart. Currently, though, her face was red from crying and tears were streaming down her face. Upon seeing this, Wanda immediately went up to comfort her, taking her out of her crib and holding her in her arms.

“Shh, it’s okay, _malyavka_ (little one), I got you, you are okay,” she said as she rubbed her circles up and down her back.

“Mama? Dada?”

Tasha kept on repeating these two words as if asking where her mom and dad were. Wanda eventually caught on to what Tasha was asking and shook her head no.

“They aren’t here, _malyavka_ , but we’ll find them, I promise.”

It appeared that Tasha did not like this answer, for her face became red and she started crying again. She kept on yelling out the words ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ as if she was crying out for her parents to come, and it broke Wanda’s heart to know that there was nothing she could do about it at the moment. The only thing she could do was comfort her, so that is what she did, shushing her and continuing to rub soothing circles on Tasha’s back.

“Shh, it’s okay, Tasha, I’m here.”

Rhodey watched her do all of this from the entrance of the balcony, and it wasn’t until Tasha’s tears were reduced to sniffles and coughs from crying so much that he approached them. He caressed the top of her head in a soothing, gentle way, and it was enough for Tasha to lift her head from Wanda’s shoulder and turn around to see who touched her hair. Seeing that it was her Uncle Rhodey, one of her favorite people, she reached her arms out to him.

“You want to see your Uncle Rhodey?” Wanda asked her.

Tasha responded by making a whimpering noise and reaching her arms out even further to Rhodey as a way of saying yes to Wanda’s question. Wanda handed her over to Rhodey who gladly took his goddaughter in his arms, kissing the top of her head when she laid her head on his shoulder.

“Rhodey, you don’t think that Tony and Steph are gone, do you?” Wanda asked.

“Let’s not think that way right now,” Rhodey replied. “Right now, let’s focus on finding them before we jump to any conclusions. We have to have faith that they are alive out there somewhere, for the sake of this little one.”

He looked at Wanda and saw the look of despair on her face and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“I know it’s easier said than done, but we got to have faith that they are alive and we’ll find them, whether that is in this universe or another one, okay?”

Wanda said nothing at first as she was not sure if she could have faith that Tony and Steph were alive. Looking at Tasha, though, she decided that she was going to try, for her sake, so she nodded in understanding to Rhodey. He held onto Natasha a little bit longer until she finally fell asleep again, and that is when the superheroes set her back down and quietly left the room to let her rest after a long and stressful day.

Meanwhile, in the city, in Greenwich Village, both Thor and Bruce were walking down on Blecker Street towards the New York Sanctum. Both heroes were disguised with Thor wearing a hoodie and Bruce wearing a hat and no longer in his Hulk form as they did not want to draw too much attention to themselves. They just wanted to get to the New York Sanctum and find out where Steph and Tony could be as soon as possible. The mask mandate due to a ravaging disease made it easier for the heroes to disguise themselves, and it made them grateful for it, if only for that moment. Thor did not necessarily need to wear a mask since he was an Asgardian and, therefore, immune to Earth’s diseases, but he decided to wear it so that he would not be recognized.

They continued walking down Blecker Street until they reached the New York Sanctum building. Thor was the one who rang the doorbell, and both he and Bruce waited for someone to open the door.

“Do you think Strange would be willing to help us?” Bruce asked, making Thor give him a confused look.

“Why wouldn’t he?”

Bruce began to look uncomfortable before shrugging a bit.

“Well, ya know, we haven’t really talked to each other for a year and a half now, and we did not exactly part ways on the best of terms since Tony did blame Strange with what happened with Pepper…”

Thor now understood what Bruce was talking about and a feeling of grief came over him as he thought about the two people they lost over a year ago now.

“Stark may hate the wizard, but he is still our ally,” Thor finally said. “He is the only one who could assist us and help us figure out if Steph and Tony are alive out there somewhere.”

Thor rang on the doorbell again as it had been sometime since they knocked and no one had yet to answer it. They waited a little bit longer until they finally heard the sound of someone unlocking the door. The door opened to reveal the face of Wong who had a friendly look on his face, but as soon as he realized who was at the door, his face hardened.

“What are you doing here?” he asked them with a bit of an edge in his tone.

“Now, come on, Wong, is that any way to greet an old friend?” Thor asked lightly.

“Last I checked, the mystics were not in the Avengers’ good graces,” Wong replied.

There was a bit of an uncomfortable silence between them when he said that. Both Thor and Bruce stood there rather awkwardly, neither of them unsure how to respond to that.

“Wong, look,” Bruce began in an imploring tone after it was silent for a while, “I know that we did not part on good terms the last time we saw each other, but whatever issues Tony has with you guys, not every Avenger feels the same way as him. We need Strange’s help with something, and he might be the only one who can help us with this. May we come in and talk to him, please?”

Wong said nothing at first as he appeared to think over Bruce’s words.

“Are either of you sick?” he suddenly asked.

Thor and Bruce shook their heads no in response.

“We get tested every week and so far, we are good,” Bruce said. “And Thor is practically a god and is immune to our diseases.”

Wong paused for a moment and went inside and then came back out with a thermometer in his hand. He checked their temperatures and opened the door a little wider, letting them in once they were cleared. Thor and Bruce stepped inside, taking their masks off as they did, and they put their hoodie down or took their hat off once Wong closed the door.

“Wait here,” he ordered them.

He then walked up the stairs to fetch Strange while Thor and Bruce waited patiently by the main entrance.

“Do you think that Strange will be willing to help us?” Bruce asked Thor again after waiting by the entrance for a little bit.

Thor shrugged in response and said, “Can’t say for sure, Strange doesn’t seem the type to hold a grudge, unlike Stark.”

“Yeah, but Strange did not curse at us or insult us in every creative way possible the last time we saw each other,” Bruce said.

“Well, he seems to like Steph well enough, that should make him willing enough to help us, right?”

Bruce said nothing in response to that, and they both became quiet again as they waited for Wong to come back with Strange. They do not wait very long as they hear a noise at the top of the stairs as if someone was walking towards them. Both looked up and saw Wong coming back with Strange not too far behind him. Upon seeing Strange walk a little closer towards them, they could see he had a bit of an annoyed look on his face and he was wearing his wizard garb instead of regular clothes. The only thing that he wasn’t wearing were his gloves where Bruce and Thor could see the scars on his hands from his accident and his signature red cape. He walked down the stairs and then stood right in front of the two Avengers, crossing his arms with a hard look on his face.

“Well, what do you need my help with?” Strange asked them in a curt tone. “Wong said that you need my help with something, so tell me what it is that you need. I got a lot of things I have to do, such as saving our dimension.”

Bruce looked uncomfortable at the hard edge in Strange’s tone, but Thor, being his usual charming self, tried to lighten the mood.

“Come on, Strange, don’t be like that,” he said. “We’re old acquaintances, right?”

“Last time I checked and according to Stark, the mystics are a bunch of magicians who ruin people’s lives and that the Avengers will no longer seek help from the likes of us,” Strange replied. “So, no, I don’t think we can really call ourselves acquaintances. And it is _Dr._ Strange, I did not get my M.D. and Ph.D. for nothing. So, what is it that you need my help with?”

“Have you been keeping up with the news lately and what has been going on with the Avengers?” Bruce asked Strange after it was silent for a bit.

“I know that you guys just recently had a battle in the city,” Strange said. “Wong and another mystic of ours had to protect the sanctum earlier today as a result, but I was not here at the time when it was happening. What of it?”

“One of your own was actually creating havoc in the city,” Thor responded. “A man who called himself Doctor Doom was attempting to create a rift between our universe and another, and he would have succeeded if Steph did not stop that from happening…”

“I applaud her for doing what I could not do at the time. I always did like Captain Rogers and wondered what she even saw in Stark, but it’s her love life, I suppose. But what does all of that have to do with seeking help from us? You did stop this Doctor Doom, right?”

“Well…” Thor began as he and Bruce looked at each other and then looked back at Strange, “we did, but there was a… _slight_ complication in defeating him.”

“Isn’t there always a complication when it comes to you guys?”

“It comes with the superhero gig, something I am sure you can understand since you are a superhero yourself.”

Strange appeared to think over Thor’s words before shrugging and saying, “Point taken. What happened?”

“Doctor Doom told Steph that he was going to send her to a place that she feared most,” Bruce began to explain. “Tony, in his usual moment of self-sacrifice, ended up getting caught in the crossfire. Doctor Doom said something, I’m not sure what he said, but he blasted them both. Now, both Tony and Steph have disappeared, and we have no idea where they are or if they are even alive…”

“Wait, Stark and Captain Rogers are dead?” Strange interrupted Bruce in a surprised tone.

There was a brief pause from Bruce as if he was thinking and answered Strange’s question.

“Well, that is what most people believe when Doctor Doom shot at them and made them disappear from the face of the Earth.”

Strange looked at Bruce in a shocked and confused way and began muttering something under his breath.

“That can’t be right, that isn’t what I saw…”

This made Bruce, Thor, and Wong look at Strange in both confusion and concern.

“Steve, what is it?” Wong asked.

“What do you mean? What exactly is it that you did not see?” Thor asked.

“Over two years ago now, when Stark and I first battled Thanos on Titan, I had used the time stone to see which reality we won against Thanos,” Strange explained. “I was only able to see in one reality where we won and, as you all now know, Ms. Potts is the reason that Thanos and everyone throughout the universe lived to see another day, but I was also able to see a glimpse of Stark’s future. Stark and Captain Rogers are not supposed to die. You say that this Doctor Doom was one of ours?”

Bruce and Thor nodded.

“What was his real name?”

“Victor Von Doom,” Bruce answered, and both Strange and Wong had looks of confusion on their faces after he did.

“Do you know anyone by that name in Kamar-Taj or any of the other sanctums?” Strange asked Wong, turning to him.

Wong shook his head no.

“The name does not ring a bell, and I know almost everyone at Kamar-Taj, think I would remember a name like that if he was one of ours,” he said. “Not to mention that Steve and I would have caught onto one of our own pupils going to the dark side…”

“Wait, so Doctor Doom is not one of yours?” Thor asked, and Strange and Wong shook their heads no. “But Doctor Doom was practically a master of the mystics and a very powerful one at that. Where else would he learn if not from you guys?”

“We are not the only mystical school that is out there,” Wong replied. “We are one of many, and there are others that are scattered throughout the globe. This Doctor Doom was more than likely taught at one of them, and he must’ve gone to the dark side somewhere between being taught there and becoming Doctor Doom.”

“Are you two familiar with the term ‘alternative realities’?” Bruce asked Strange and Wong.

Both of them nodded in response and Strange said, “I have read on them briefly when I first came to Kamar-Tar. What of them?”

“I know this may seem hard to believe, and this is more of Peter’s idea, but Peter and some of the Avengers believe Doctor Doom may have sent Tony and Steph into an alternative reality…”

“I am assuming by your dubious tone that you don’t believe in said alternative realities?” Strange asked him.

“Well, it is just not scientifically possible…is it?”

Bruce had a bit of a disbelieving tone in his voice, but then added it as a question when Strange and Wong did not respond the way he expected them to.

“After all the things you have seen and done, you don’t believe in alternative realities?” Thor asked him in a disbelieving tone of his own.

“Thor has a point, you managed to time travel, a feat that is considered impossible by the general scientific community,” Strange responded. “Alternative realities do exist as much as other dimensions exist, it is said that there are thousands of alternative realities out there that are happening right now and we aren’t even aware of it. What made you guys come up with the conclusion that Captain Rogers and Stark were sent to an alternative reality?”

“Before Doom blasted Steph and Tony into oblivion, he said to Steph that he was going to send her to a place that she feared most, a place where she lost everything and everyone she loved,” Thor replied. “It was as if he was talking about another world other than this one. It is what led many of us to believe, or at least hope, that is what happened.”

“Was there anything he said right before Stark and Captain Rogers disappeared, like anything that sounded like a spell or an incantation?” Strange asked.

Bruce and Thor thought about it, and an epiphany crossed their faces not too long after that.

“Come to think of it, yeah, he did say something that sounded like an incantation right before they disappeared,” Bruce said.

“Do you recall the words?”

“No, but it sounded like it was in an ancient language, like Sanskirt or something like that. It sounded familiar to me because of my time being a fugitive in India.”

Strange and Wong looked at them in concern until Wong finally approached Strange.

“If this Doctor Doom did send Stark and Captain Rogers to an alternative reality, it could alter the very fabric of that reality, not to mention what it will do to this reality if they are stuck there,” he said in an alarmed tone.

“Especially if Doctor Doom did not mean to blast Stark into an alternative reality and he just got caught in the crossfire,” Strange said. “The only thing that remains in question are two things: did he really send them to an alternative reality and if so, which one did he send them to?”

“We need to figure that out,” Wong declared.

“Right,” Strange said with a nod. “You go visit the other mystic schools, find out where this Victor Von Doom came from, I’ll search through the library and go through every book related to alternative realities. From there, we’ll find out if he did send them to an alternative reality and which one that is.”

Wong nodded and turned around, opening a portal to what looked like an area that had snow. He walked into the portal and it disappeared while Strange’s cloak flew to him and came onto his shoulders, and a portal appeared behind him to a place what looked like a courtyard to a temple.

“Soooo, does this mean you are going to help us?” Bruce asked Strange after all of this happened.

“As much as I don’t like Stark and I know he wouldn’t want us to, yes, I am going to help,” Strange replied. “There is a reason Doctor Doom sent Captain Rogers and Stark to an alternative reality other than for purely vengeful reasons, if he did, and we need to figure out what that reason is. Wong and I are going to gather all the information that we can on this Victor Von Doom and we’ll meet you at your headquarters once we do. Lock the door on your way out!”

He shouted the last part when he turned and walked through the portal, and the portal got smaller and smaller before it disappeared altogether, Thor and Bruce feeling a cold breeze as it did. They both stared at the empty space where Strange just disappeared for a little while with Bruce looking at it in a bit of shock. It wasn’t until Thor patted him on the shoulder that he was brought out of his stupor.

“Looks as if he is on board.”

Thor dragged a still shocked-looking Bruce out of the sanctum with the latter muttering how alternative realities were just not possible, and they went back to the facility to let their other teammates know what happened.

* * *

_Schmidt’s mansion, 1949_

With how exhausted Steph’s anxiety attacks had made her, Steph had slept almost throughout the entire day and did not wake up until it was a quarter to 2 in the afternoon. When she did, she found a bandage around her neck where Schmidt had bit her and a bowl of porridge that was left for her on the coffee table, and no doubt it had been hours since it had been left for her. The porridge was cold, but Steph did not care as she was starving and she left the room to go find more food when she was done.

She went into the kitchen where Amalia and the kitchen staff were, and they bowed as soon as she entered. It was there that Steph attempted to make a rather large meal for herself and was insistent on it when the kitchen staff tried making it for her. It wasn’t until Amalia had pulled her to the side and informed her that it was considered abnormal behavior for her to cook her own food since Schmidt forbade it (and there were certain staff who were loyal to Schmidt and would not hesitate to report it to him) that she finally relented. So, she sat down and let the staff fix her a rather large German breakfast for her.

“Are you alright, Herrin?” Amalia asked her after she was done eating. “Are you feeling any better?”

“I am feeling better now that I had something to eat,” Steph responded. She looked down at herself, though, and realized she was still in the same red dress as before, and she suddenly got sick to her stomach. “Perhaps it would be better to get changed into some new clothes. Follow me, I need your help getting ready.”

She demanded this to Amalia who quickly obeyed and followed her out of the kitchen to her room. However, Steph did not really need her help with getting ready, she just needed to gather info on what her life was like and how she was in this universe. She really hoped that there were some pants she could wear and, to her immense relief, there were. She noticed as she was going through her wardrobe that there weren’t that many pants, and her wardrobe mainly consisted of skirts and dresses with very few bright-colored clothing. She picked a pair of black capris pants, a dark blue-short sleeved U-neck shirt, a pair of black flats, and a black long-sleeved blouse to help cover up the tattoo on her arm. The tattoo reminded Steph she needed to buy some make-up to help cover it up and would need to have Amalia order some for her with the money that Schmidt gave her.

As she was getting ready, she had Amalia go over some important key factors about her life in this universe, and she learned a lot. For instance, she learned a lot more about the married relationship between her and Schmidt. She now knew that while she still retained some of her old-self, there were a lot of things that made her different as well. As a result of nearly five years of being raped and tortured by Schmidt, Steph in this universe had been traumatized, and she feared Schmidt in a way, and even accepted that this was her life a long time ago. It broke Steph’s heart to hear how much Schmidt had made her suffer but could relate to her pain a little bit due to her own past experience with it.

She apparently loathed it when Schmidt touched her, but it always just made him angry and hurt her even more whenever she refused to let him touch her, so she had learned to grin and bear it. Steph now understood why Schmidt had become so suspicious of her and she had to be careful from now on. Apparently, Schmidt was possessive over Steph too and would go into a jealous fit whenever she gave more attention to other men, and his jealous fits would make it feel as if she is suffocating. Whenever she brought it up and asked him to stop, though, he would either dismiss her feelings or hurt her if she pressed it.

‘ _So, Schmidt is not only a rapist, but a wife beater as well, how romantic…_ ’ Steph thought in a sarcastic manner.

She learned that she still did art and was happy to hear that was one thing Schmidt did not take away from her, but she was also saddened to hear that she used it as an outlet of escape. And apparently, it was Schmidt who bought all her art supplies and even provided her own room to do that, which was surprising to Steph, but at the same time, it wasn’t. In Steph’s mind, Schmidt probably only did it as a way to show that he cared about her when it was very obvious he did not genuinely care for her and that there was nothing in this world that Schmidt could do that would make her love him.

She also had friends that Schmidt had her hang out with, but that almost none of them were people that she would consider a friend. All of them were the wives of Schmidt’s associates or high-ranking officers, and she didn’t like most of them, but there were two main ones that she hung out with and only one of them did she consider to be a friend. One of the main ones that she hung out with was Nataliya Petrov nee Zemo, and she was the person that Steph would consider a friend. Nataliya was a Russian native and wife of Baron Zemo (now Herzog Zemo when Schmidt brought the nobility back once he declared himself Kaiser of the entire globe back in 1945), and she and Steph were apparently really close and confided in one another. The only thing is Schmidt did not really approve the friendship and believed that Nataliya was not lady-like enough for Steph’s social-standing and always tried to make sure that another wife of one of his associates was there whenever Nataliya was around.

‘ _If Schmidt does not approve of her, then she is my kind of woman_ ,’ Steph thought.

The other main one that Steph hung out with was Gertrude von Strucker, the wife of Herzog Adawulf von Strucker, Schmidt’s other right-hand man and the father of Baron von Strucker from Steph’s universe; however, Steph hated Gertrude and they did not get along with each other. A loyalist to Schmidt’s and HYDRA’S cause, Gertrude was not very kind and often looked down at others, including Steph, and was two-faced. She was even jealous of Steph’s rank and pinned after Schmidt, wanting him all to herself, which made Steph scoff at hearing that. What made this woman think she even wanted this life? If Schmidt gave her the choice, she would gladly give up this life to this Gertrude woman. Steph at first did not understand why she and Gertrude would hang out with each other if they did not like each other, but then Amalia explained that it was all because of their husbands, that they were forced to hang out and Schmidt considered Gertrude more lady-like to hang out with then Nataliya.

At hearing that, Steph snorted at the ridiculousness of it. Schmidt knew full-well that she was far from “lady-like”, her going into war and fighting in battle and wearing pants like a man was proof that she was far from being lady-like. At least, according to social standing at the time and Schmidt’s own view, she wasn’t and for him to try and mold her in his own image of what a lady should be was almost comical to her. Then, she remembered that the Steph in this universe had been broken and she was not given much of a choice in her life since the end of the war, and it made her feel sorry for the Stephanie Grace Rogers in this universe.

After learning all she could about her life in the past five years in this universe, she had dismissed Amalia to let her go do her chores while Steph went and explored the mansion for a bit. She discovered along her way out of her room to explore that the room across from hers was actually Schmidt’s room, but she chose to stay out of that room. She did not want to go in there unless she had to.

She explored almost every inch of the mansion, coming across rooms that had a purpose for just about everything. There was a room that looked like a gym, a ballroom, a large dining room, and a room with what looked like a place to entertain guests. She even came across a library that was so expansive and had so many books that it made Steph’s eyes bulge in amazement and wonder as she had never seen so many books before. As she explored more, she eventually came across her art room that Amalia told her about.

It was there in the art room that Steph came across paintings, drawings, and sketches of people, places, and things from this universe. Some sketches were familiar to her as she recognized some of the landscapes, and there were some drawings of her and the Commandos or someone she recognized from the SSR, but most she did not recognize. Some of her artwork looked important and these she set to one side of the room as a way to remind herself to look at them later, but there were two things that stood out the most: a sketch of a woman and a painting of a door that stood on a stand in the middle of the room.

The sketch was a picture of what looked like a woman that had dark hair and light skin, but that was the only description Steph could make out of her. The woman had her head turned and was sitting on the floor in a fetal position. The woman’s body language indicated that she was afraid and did not want anyone touching her as she had her left hand on top of her head and her right hand outstretched with her palm facing forward as if telling the person whomever was approaching to stop. With her right hand up, Steph noticed that the woman was missing a couple of digits. Looking at the sketch, Steph wondered if this woman was someone of importance to her and if Schmidt had her tortured, if her missing digits were any indication of that, just to torture her. On the painting was a picture of what looked like a brown-green steel door that was shut and locked with a round steel door knob. Surrounding the door was a black background and coming from underneath the door was a large pool of red as if to indicate a pool of blood.

Looking at the painting, Steph felt as if there was some sinister meaning behind it and it made her skin crawl. Deciding she had enough after looking at that painting, she moved on and explored around the mansion more. There were some doors that were locked and it made Steph wonder if there was something important that Schmidt did not want her getting to. She would have attempted to break in, but there were guards all around, watching her every move, and decided not to risk it for now. As she walked around the mansion, Steph noticed some statues or paintings of HYDRA’s symbol or of Johann Schmidt himself that made him look as if he was some glorious hero, and it made Steph roll her eyes seeing Schmidt depicted in such a way. She also noticed a balcony on the floor down the hallway from hers and Schmidt’s room that had a view of the eastside of the mansion. Opening the door to the balcony, she saw that it was small and only big enough to fit two or three to stand and enjoy the view. There were pots of plants on each corner of the balcony, and Steph looked over the edge of the balcony to see a long ways down to the ground, but on her right side, she could see some vines that were growing on the side of the wall. To get to it, Steph would need at least ten feet of rope, and she didn’t have one nor did she know where to look to find one. If she found one, she would be able to climb down and watch the facility without any nosey staff or guards seeing her step outside of the mansion. No doubt, both groups would not hesitate to tell Schmidt if they noticed her doing anything that was weird or out of line.

After exploring the mansion as much as she could, Steph decided to go down to the fitness room to try and test her strengths and limits to see which super abilities were still there and which ones were not. She noticed that her regenerative abilities were still there as she noticed that the area where Schmidt had bit her was now reduced to a black and blue bruise when she took off the bandage to check it. She knew that her super strength was reduced and this became more apparent when she realized that she couldn’t do as many push-ups or sit-ups, and she noticed her superspeed was reduced too as she couldn’t run as fast as she normally could. She couldn’t even lift punching bags over her shoulder or lift multiple heavy weights at a time with ease. As she was running between one side of the room to the other, she also noticed that she got tired after only running for a little over a mile.

So, it was not only her superstrength that was reduced, but her superspeed and her stamina as well. The only thing that did not seem to be reduced were her regenerative healing abilities, durability, enhanced senses, and her quick reflexes. Despite all of that, Steph thought she could use it to her advantage, she just had to figure out how to use it against someone like Schmidt who had more of an advantage than she did by having his full superserum abilities. No doubt, Schmidt did something to hers, she just needed to figure out what he did so she could get them back.

Amalia had called for Steph for dinner around 6 pm and had Steph eat in the small dining room. She was thankful she did not have to eat with an evil scientist and a deranged dictator, but can’t help but notice how quiet it was with just her eating at the table. Back in her own universe, Steph was often used to a table full of superheroes that was always rather loud and rambunctious, and it made Steph feel as if she was at a large gathering for family every time they sat at the table for dinner. And with lil’ Tasha in the picture, she made it even more rambunctious with her cries of excitement being surrounded by her parents and all her aunts and uncles, and everyone simply gushed over her whenever she was at the table. To not be at a table like that made Steph feel rather weird and downright lonely, and she wondered if this is how Stephanie Rogers née Schmidt felt like whenever she sat at a table with no one but her own company and the house staff.

After dinner, she went outside to the backyard of the mansion to observe the facility more. The cover of darkness kept her mostly hidden from the few guards surrounding the facility, but she still kept herself hidden in case one of the guards spotted her watching them. Watching from behind the bushes of the maze along the pathway of the terrace, Steph observed the guards’ movements, keeping track of when they switched duty, but noticing that none of them went into the facility. Either this was because none of them had an access code or they didn’t have a reason to go into the facility right now. As much as Steph wanted to leave this place as soon as possible, she knew she had to bait her time and find a way inside the facility without alerting any of the guards or tripping any alarms. The question was how? Maybe she could convince Amalia to help her? She did not seem to be very good at lying, but if she was willing to help, Steph could probably teach her how to be better at lying and how to use her seemingly innocent nature to her advantage. Not only had Natasha taught her that, but Peggy as well. It felt wrong to use the poor girl like that, but if Steph did this right, it would not result in a young girl losing her innocence.

It was close to nine at night as Steph was still coming up with a plan on how to get inside the facility unnoticed that she heard a noise coming from the front of the mansion as if a car and a truck were approaching. ‘ _Schmidt must be home_ ,’ Steph thought. From what it sounded like too, he had an army with him.

Steph waited to see if Schmidt would bring his men back out here, and it isn’t long before she finally sees someone come into the back from the Westside of the mansion. Seeing that it was Schmidt, Steph immediately switched sides so that he wouldn’t see her and she turned her head around the corner of the bush. It was dark at night, but Steph was able to see that not only was Schmidt coming into the backyard, but so was Zola and what looked like Officer Hoffman. Behind them were about five or six soldiers, and they were surrounding three dirty-looking men, and it looked as if the soldiers were leading the men to the facility where Schmidt, Zola, and Hoffman were walking to.

Steph realized that this was her chance to get an access code, she just had to do it quickly and quietly before anyone could see her. Seeing a small garden with trees surrounding it right by the facility that she could use as cover, she stepped out from underneath the terrace and onto the grass. As soon as she did, though, she stepped on a twig, causing it to break and make a snapping noise when she did. She held her breath, hoping against hope that Schmidt didn’t hear that, but as she expected, he stopped mid-step at the noise and turned towards the terrace where his eyes landed right on Steph.

“Stephanie? _Liebchen_ , what are you doing out here?” he asked when he saw that it was her.

_Shit._

That didn’t go quite as planned. Everyone had turned their heads and were now staring at Steph so all eyes were now on her. No sense in trying now, so she stood up straight and walked towards Schmidt.

“I heard a noise outside, and I came outside to see what it was,” she finally replied to Schmidt’s question as she walked towards him. “What’s going on here, Johann?”

She learned from Amalia that Schmidt prefered her to call him by his first name. She walked until she was directly in front of him, staring at the three dirty-looking men. Upon closer inspection, Steph realized that these men were soldiers too if their torn clothes and battle-worn faces were any indication of their occupation. Also, their black uniforms gave it away. The other soldiers, the more clean-looking ones, all bowed to Steph as soon as she approached, but the three soldiers just stared at Steph with their eyes wide and mouths agape as if they could not believe that they were seeing her. It wasn’t until Hoffman shouted at them that they finally got out of their shock at seeing their empress in person for the first time.

“What are you _Idioten_ (idiots) doing? Show some respect to _eure Kaiserin_ (your-plural empress)!”

The three soldiers apologized and finally bowed to her. Steph took a closer look at the three men and saw that the two of them were German-looking and the third one who looked younger than the other two looked Eastern European. One of the German-looking soldiers was wearing a uniform that indicated he was of a higher rank than the other two, and he also was older-looking. The two German soldiers had their eyes low to the ground even after they came back up from bowing as though it was a crime to look at her in the eye. The only one who did not seem afraid was the Eastern European soldier as he was looking up at her in a certain way. It wasn’t a leering gaze the way most men stared at her, it was more of an admiring gaze like he was in awe of her beauty. It was nice to see something other than a leer in a man’s eyes, and it reminded Steph of all the times Tony used to look at her like that, and it brought a small smile on her face at the memory of that.

The young soldier saw the smile on Steph’s face and mistook it as her smiling at him, and he blushed and looked away, smiling bashfully. Schmidt saw the small exchange between the two, and he felt a surge of jealousy and possessiveness go through him, wanting to show this young man what he could never have and to remind Steph who she belonged to, so he did just that. Taking a step closer to Steph, he pulled her to him, pressed her against his body, and made her gasp before he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers.

At first, Steph did not kiss him back as the kiss both surprised and disgusted her, and she didn’t kiss him back until after a couple of seconds, trying to imagine she was kissing someone else. She had learned through Amalia that Schmidt would often punish her if she didn’t kiss him back, and she still had to play the role of a subservient queen to make sure he did not suspect anything else. Once she was able to imagine she was kissing someone else, it made it easier for her to kiss him.

As Schmidt kissed her, he had felt a sense of relief wash over him, feeling all the stress from today leave him for a brief moment. He had been in meetings with his top generals and top scientists all day going over what happened in Kiev, and it made him stressed and worn out from the day. He was now fully aware that an anomaly or some kind of portal appeared in the sky prior to the robot’s arrival, and something came out of it, crash-landing into the building where his men came across it. This made Schmidt believe that the robot was from somewhere not of this world. It wouldn’t be the first time they came across something not of this world, but the question is where did it come from and how did it come here? All the rebels divisions were now calling this robot ‘Iron Man’ and their savior, which made Schmidt scoff at that. Last his resources heard, this ‘ _Iron Man_ ’ was now within the SSR division, and both it and the SSR division disappeared near the edge of the border of Poland.

Schmidt was not too overly concerned as he had strengths in both numbers and power, but there was a small part of him that was a little bit concerned too. If this robot was as powerful as everyone said it was, then his cause and everything he had fought for years would be on the verge of collapsing, especially if it was in the hands of the SSR division. It would give them and other rebel divisions an advantage in this war they haven’t had in years, and they could delay all the projects and plans Schmidt had for his empire for the upcoming year. He did not express his concerns to any of his close confidants, except for Zola, and he especially didn’t want to express this concern to his wife. It would give her reason to hope and he took that from her a long time ago. So, to see his wife and kiss her after a long and stressful day was relieving, but the small exchange between her and the soldier he just witnessed made him feel a bubble of rage of jealousy rise within him.

He knew that his wife was beautiful, it was very obvious with the way many American men fell in love with her when she was just a gaudy show girl and then they fell in love with her even more when she became a war hero. Even Schmidt could not deny that she was beautiful, he could appreciate beauty when he saw one even if said beauty was on the other side of the cause. It was one of the many reasons why he decided to take the great Captain America as his war bride instead of killing her, besides the fact that she was superhuman like him and could help create his dynasty. But, because of this, many men lusted after her, and it made Schmidt have to mark his territory, so to speak, to show that Stephanie Rogers (Müller) née Schmidt was his and his alone. Once in a while, Stephanie had to be reminded of this as well, and it looked as if it was one of those times, so he pulled her in for a kiss.

Zola, Hoffman, and the three men looked away at the intimate way Schmidt was kissing his wife, feeling uncomfortable at seeing that. The only ones who don’t look uncomfortable are the other soldiers who just watch with amused smirks on their faces that could be seen from the masks that were only covering the top part of their faces, all of them having grown used to their leader’s rather possessive nature towards his wife. Steph, meanwhile, hoped that this would end soon, there was only so much she could take of having Schmidt’s lips on her and he kissed her too roughly for her to imagine it was Tony. She got her wish when he finally pulled away, looking down at her in such a possessive way and smirking. He caressed her cheek with a gloved hand, making Step shiver at the cold touch.

“How was your day, _meine schöne Frau_ (my beautiful wife)?” he asked her.

“Uneventful,” Steph replied and took a step back, not wanting to be in his arms any longer. “What’s going on here? I didn’t realize we were going to have guests this late at night…”

“We’re not, this is just a standard procedure, _meine liebchen_ , nothing for you to worry about,” Schmidt replied. “What are you doing out here? It’s much too cold for you to be out here in nothing but a thin blouse.”

Steph knew that Schmidt’s concern was not really genuine and that it was all just for show in front of his men; plus, with the serum, her body was able to withstand cold weather, unless it got down to a certain degree, but she was Stephanie Giselle Müller and not Stephanie Grace Rogers, the supersoldier. She was forced to play the part of someone who did not exist, not to mention that she knew how he really was when no one was looking; however, two can play at that game. She smiled sweetly up at him, but not too sweetly before responding to his ‘concern’.

“That’s sweet of you to be concerned for me, dear husband, but I am actually not that cold,” she replied. “I was actually just running around the back of the mansion, I needed to do something to clear my mind. Being cooped up all day in that big house with no company other than the housestaff has been driving me crazy.”

“Perhaps you should call Gertrude and have her come over with some of her friends?”

“Perhaps…”

Although, Steph did not really want to call this Gertrude von Strucker for her to come and hang out with her. She just seemed like a horrible person, and Steph had no interest in hanging out with someone like that.

“I have to get to work, _Liebling_ (darling), but I’ll be heading in as soon as I am done. You should probably head inside before you get too cold. Officer Hoffman!”

Hoffman took a step closer to both of them, standing at attention, and said, “Sir!”

“Take my wife inside and make sure that her personal maid takes care of her.”

Hoffman bowed to Schmidt before he nudged Steph to follow him back inside the mansion.

“Come along, _meine Kaiserin_ , come inside where you will be warm,” he said.

Steph did not let him lead her away at first, watching Schmidt and his men walk towards the facility. She was hoping to get a glimpse of Schmidt inputting his access code, but was irritated when she couldn’t as his body was blocking the view of the keypad. ‘ _Damn, guess I just have to find another way inside the facility_ ,’ she thought as she let Hoffman lead back inside the mansion. As they walked along the pathway of the terrace, Steph looked to Hoffman and an idea came to her head as they did, thinking she could try to get some information on why those three men were actually here.

“Who were those three men, Officer Hoffman?” she asked him.

He looked uncomfortable by her question, but he answered it anyway, even if it was indirectly.

“I wouldn’t worry too much on who those three men are, _meine Kaiserin_. As your husband said, this is just a standard procedure.”

Steph knew that both Schmidt and Hoffman were lying to her with this “standard procedure” bullshit they were giving her, especially with the uncomfortable way Hoffman looked by her question. So, she tried to dig a little deeper without giving away that she was fishing for information and just showing concern for the dynasty as a queen.

“They looked like soldiers, and they looked as if they had been through a battle,” she mentioned. “Was there a fight somewhere nearby that I or my husband should be concerned about?”

“There was a fight, but it was nowhere near Berlin, so it is nothing for you to worry about, _meine Kaiserin_ ,” Hoffman replied.

“What was the fight?”

“It was just a rebel faction in one of the cities in Russia causing trouble for the empire.”

“Russian city? You mean Kiev, right?”

Hoffman looked uncomfortable once more and he did not respond to Steph’s question, but his silence confirmed the answer to it.

“Hmm, interesting…” Steph said.

“What’s interesting, _meine Kaiserin_?” Hoffman asked.

“I just find it interesting that my husband would bring three men to his facility over a small rebel faction, it just does not seem like him and something he wouldn’t overly concern himself with unless it was something more serious…”

Steph looked directly at Hoffman when she said this and she could see that she hit right on the mark, for she could see him swallowing nervously. So it definitely was something more than just a small rebel faction that had caused trouble in Kiev. She still did not know what exactly happened; however, she couldn’t directly ask Hoffman for information. She had learned through Amalia that Schmidt had forbidden anyone from talking about the war to or around Steph, and he would punish not only Steph for asking but the person who ended up blabbing the information to her.

“Do not fret, _meine Kaiserin_ , the empire is stronger than any rebel scum faction out there,” Hoffman said.

“I am sure…” Steph replied, having to hold her sarcastic tone back.

Hoffman appeared to relax after Steph did not ask anymore questions and continued to lead her inside the mansion. They found Amalia cleaning one of the larger dining rooms, and Hoffman’s gaze lingered a little longer on her until he finally handed Steph to her. When Hoffman was out of sight, Steph grabbed a hold of Amalia’s hand and dragged her up the stairs and into her room. Once she locked the door, she turned to Amalia with a determined look on her face.

“I need your help getting into Schmidt’s facility!”

* * *

_Inside the facility, Schmidt’s office_

“So, you are saying that this robot was not a robot at all, but actually a man?” Schmidt asked the officer.

The officer nodded to confirm Schmidt’s answer.

“My men and I were sent to check the perimeter of the building, and that is when we came across a small group of rebel soldiers, they were speaking to a man who was wearing some sort of suit of armor. It made the man ten times stronger than the average human being, it was almost as strong as you, _mein Kaiser_.”

It was a mistake to say this, for Schmidt looked up and glared at the officer to the point that it looked as if he was trying to burn the officer right on the spot. The officer realized his mistake when he saw the way his leader was glaring at him and tried remedying himself.

“Of course, no one is as strong as you, _mein Kaiser_.”

Schmidt was content with that answer, for he relaxed and changed the subject.

“What are the functions of the suit?”

“It had missiles in it,” the youngest soldier, the one who was eyeing his wife earlier, said.

“Really? I never would have thought the suit had missiles in it, how else would it be able to blow up one of my tanks?” Schmidt responded in a sarcastic manner. “Perhaps you would have thought of a better response if you did not keep glancing at a picture of _my_ wife.”

‘ _Really, the audacity of this little boy!_ ’ Schmidt thought. He noticed the young soldier kept on glancing at a very large photo of his wife that was hanging on the wall behind him on his left side. It was one of her modeling pictures from a couple years ago, and the picture was in black and white and in it, Steph was wearing a red, sleeveless low-cut dress and had a seductive gaze in her eyes. It was one of Schmidt’s favorite photos of her, and this young soldier was unashamedly drooling over it as if no one was watching.

The young soldier blushed and looked down at the floor in embarrassment at being caught and called out by his leader for staring at the picture. His officer and comrade glared at him as if he said the most stupidest thing on the planet, and his comrade muttered a derogatory term for his nationality under his breath. It was heard by the young soldier, though, and his cheeks turned red in anger at that.

“The suit had defensive weapons,” the other soldier spoke up. “It had these blasters on both of it’s palms, and it was durable. It seemed to be powered by something that was in it’s chest…”

Schmidt lifted a picture of the robot and pointed to the glowing device in the middle of it’s chest.

“You mean this device?”

The soldier nodded in response before speaking.

“Yes, it sort of reminded me of a miniaturized version of the Tesseract.”

Schmidt gave the soldier a surprise look at hearing that.

“A miniaturized version of the Tesseract? You mean to tell me that one lone rebel managed to replicate HYDRA’s greatest resource that powers our weapons and technology?” he asked in a disbelieving tone.

The soldier appeared to think over Schmidt’s question before responding and said, “I am not exactly sure, _mein Kaiser_ , but that’s what it reminded me of.”

“And, tell me, how is it that these rebel scum were able to replicate a miniature Tesseract with the limited resources that they have?” Schmidt asked them in a skeptical tone.

All three men hesitated, not sure how to answer Schmidt’s question. They were a bit scared that the next thing they said might incur Schmidt’s wrath. Two out of the three men respected him, but all three of them still feared him as they heard stories of Schmidt killing people just for saying the wrong thing.

Schmidt rolled his eyes at that and decided to change the subject when he realized he was going to get nowhere with these three imbeciles.

“This man in the suit of armor, what did he look like?” he asked.

“We did not get a very good look at him, Sire, he kept his mask on the entire time,” the youngest soldier spoke up.

Schmidt turned to the other soldier who nodded in agreement.

“What about you?” he asked the officer, turning to him. “You managed to get a glimpse of the man before he put the mask on. Do you recall what he looked like?”

The officer paused for a moment as he tried to remember what the man in the armor looked like.

“I did not get a very good look at the man since his back was turned, but from what I could see, he had dark brown hair and it was in a certain style I had never seen before…”

“How so?”

“It looked as if it was slicked back and it was swept to one side, but it was kept short and a bit messy in the back. The hairstyle kind of reminded me of someone who was a delinquent, except his was not as long or greasy like most delinquents wear their hair nowadays.”

“What about any other physical characteristics, like height or weight? Did he have a certain accent or speak in a certain language?” Schmidt asked.

“It was kind of hard to tell with the suit on, but it looked as if the man was just under 6 feet tall,” the soldier replied.

“He also mainly spoke English and French,” the youngest soldier said. “There was a rebel soldier with him who mainly spoke French, but he had an accent that made it sound as if he was American.”

“A New Yorker, to be exact,” the officer responded. “I visited the state a few times in my youth prior to the war, so I know the accent of a New Yorker when I hear it.”

Schmidt sat in his chair behind his desk, contemplating all the information that was given to him. So, this Iron Man was an American man with dark brown hair and he had a New York accent. This mysterious American rebel man had created a suit that was powerful enough to withstand all his weapons and powered by a source that was similar to the Tesseract. Only one man was smart enough to do that, and that was Howard Stark; however, it did not explain the connection between the anomaly and then this Iron Man appearing not too long after that. He sighed after thinking over it for sometime.

“Very well, I think I have learned all I can regarding this…Iron Man,” he said. “You are all dismissed. Take these three men away.”

The soldiers saluted and were escorting the three men out when Schmidt called out to them. They all stopped and turned back to their leader who was giving them a stern look.

“Gentleman, I am going to implore you on the importance of keeping this information from the public,” Schmidt began. “If anyone asks you what happened in Kiev, you will say you were ambushed by a rebel insurgent and nothing more. If I hear one word that either one of you spoke to the public about what really happened, the punishment will be _severe_. Do you understand?”

Although Schmidt did not directly state it, the three men understood the implication in his tone and knew that he meant he would not hesitate to kill them if they so much as breathed a word on what really happened. The thought of that terrified them, and all three of them nodded in response.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, now leave!”

The three men were led out of the office until only Schmidt, Zola, and Hoffman were left in there. Once they left, Schmidt got up from his chair and looked out of his glass window where he could see the view of his small facility from there.

“I learned everything I could on this _Iron Man_ ,” Schmidt said, saying the name ‘Iron Man’ with a sneer, “and we still don’t have enough information on it.”

“That is not necessarily true, Kaiser Schmidt, we now know that the Iron Man is an actual person and not a robot like we initially believed,” Zola responded.

“Yes, but the question now is who is the man behind the façade known as Iron Man?” Schmidt replied. “And now the SSR has him within their ranks, or maybe they already had him in their ranks to begin with…”

“Do you think that this Iron Man is someone from the SSR division, Kaiser Schmidt?” Hoffman asked him.

“I am thinking that, Officer Hoffman, and only one person in the SSR is smart enough to build a suit of armor as advanced as this,” Schmidt said, pointing at the picture of Iron Man, “and that is Howard Stark. He is also the only one who can possibly build a miniature Tesseract, but he is obviously not that smart if it took him nearly five years on how to do it; plus, he would need to know the properties of the Tesseract in order to do it and he doesn’t. I can’t deny that this suit will possibly give the SSR an advantage in this conflict, if it is Howard Stark, but it still does not explain the connection between the anomaly and Iron Man appearing not too long after that…”

“Is it possible for Stark to have caused the anomaly and that is how he ended up in Kiev?” Howard asked.

“It is unlikely, but we do have to consider the fact that Stark and the SSR has been under our radar for almost five years now,” Schmidt replied. “Perhaps they had more access to advanced technology than we originally thought? We won’t know for sure until Iron Man shows up again.”

He then turned his full attention back to Hoffman.

“Have our men and spies be on the lookout for this Iron Man and have them report directly to us if there are any sightings or news regarding him. You are dismissed.”

Hoffman saluted him and turned on his heel, leaving the room. Once he left, Zola turned to Schmidt.

“Is there anything else you need from me, Kaiser Schmidt?” he asked him.

“No, you can go about your business, Arnim, I will call on you if I need you for anything.”

Zola bowed and left the room. Once he did, Schmidt looked down and stared at the picture of Iron Man. ‘ _Who are you and where did you come from?_ ’ he thought as he stared intently at the photo as if staring at it long enough would give him the answer. He had a feeling the man behind Iron Man was Howard Stark, he fit the description and it made sense, but that was only based off of the little his soldiers saw and knew of the man before he put his mask on. He needed to have all the facts in place before coming to the conclusion that Stark was the man behind the mask.

After sitting and pondering on the concern of Iron Man, Schmidt decided to finally leave his office to go work on certain projects within his facility, and it was very late by the time he finally decided to go to bed. On the way to his room, he checked on his wife who he saw was already fast asleep, but was sleeping on the couch, for some strange reason. He carried her over to her bed and was just about to leave when he heard her mutter something in her sleep, and he stopped to listen.

“No…To…stop him…stop Thanos…”

Schmidt watched her mutter in her sleep rather curiously, seeing her face contorted in fear as if she was having a nightmare. Nightmares for her were not uncommon, she would often have them and wake up screaming in the middle of the night with mostly his name or Zola or Zemo’s name coming from her lips. Schmidt had learned to ignore it, knowing that this was a price she had to pay as his prisoner and his bride, his spoils of war so to speak, but this new name coming from her lips was something he had never had before. Who was Thanos? He tried recalling all the men who had worked on his wife before, but the name Thanos did not ring a bell. It was a rather strange name, was it Siberian or some other foreign name?

His wife did not mutter anything else after that, though, so he decided not to think about it any more and turned around to go to bed. He nearly forgot about all thoughts of his wife’s nightmare and this Thanos until he woke up the next morning, thinking everything was somewhat normal with his wife, and it wasn’t until the next night that he began to think differently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all liked it, leave a kudos or comment if you did.
> 
> Just a bit of a note, the term Herzog is actually the German word for "Duke", supposedly. I was looking up German nobility titles and the German word for Duke came up Herzog and so that is why Zemo and von Strucker were called Herzog. In this story, after Schmidt won the war, he brought nobility back and dubbed most of his loyal followers with a noble title. And did any of you know that the arc reactor is actually supposed to be a replicate of the Tesseract? Go on Marvel Cinematic Universe wiki and you will see what I mean. It is why I added Schmidt being surprised since in the universe where HYDRA won, only Schmidt and HYDRA had access to it, but with Tony from his universe, he does have access to it. He managed to perfect the miniaturized chestpiece version since Howard found the Tesseract in the ocean after the war and created an alternative power source based off of the Tesseract which was the first Arc Reactor.
> 
> Sorry if there was not much dialogue with Stephanie, but I was kind of at a writer's block on what to write and I wanted to give you guys a bit of glimpse on what her life is like in the parallel universe. You will probably see more dialogue from her in the next chapter as in the next chapter I'll be introducing my OCs: Nataliya and Gertrude. I hope you enjoyed that glimpse of lil' Tasha and you'll probably see more of her. I do plan on posting a prequel of how she came to be and was born, so watch out for that.
> 
> Anyway, Merry Christmas/Happy Yule (or Bitchin' Yule as my friends are now saying lol)/Happy Holidays and have a happy new year because this year was effing hell! Cheers to a better new year for all of us!

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed that! I will be posting the second chapter soon as I had to split the first chapter into two different chapters. The first chapter would have been too long if I put it together, but the third chapter will take a little bit more time, but I will go as fast as I can. With this pandemic and basically being quarantined in my home, though, I'll probably have more time on my hands now.
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Remember, no flames.


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